Chapter 13 – Idol Boyfriend vs ARMY Friends

Much too soon, I found myself on a plane back to Japan, but it was ok because he would be joining me there again in only two days.

I’m sure you’re expecting me to tell you that those two days were agony, but actually, they weren’t. It was such a strange feeling… Like I’d just had one long, very lucid dream, brought on by jetlag or something. And yet, he mailed me a million times a day, proving that everything had in fact happened just as I remembered it. Every time a message came, I would just stare at it in wonder, as if the phone might just go poof in my hand.

On the one hand, I was completely elated every time I heard from him – like a high school girl living through her first romance – because his feelings seemed so pure and innocent and they were highly contagious. On the other hand, I was worried, and weary. How long could this last? What if we got caught? When would the newness and excitement die and he would toss me aside like an old toy that had overgrown its purpose? I couldn’t let myself fall for him completely. And yet, whenever the phone rang and I heard his deep, soft voice whisper “I love you” to me, my resolve died just a little bit more.

But it was just two days. Of slow torture.

On Thursday, he mailed me, shortly after 11am, just as I was getting ready to leave the house.

[Noona!!! I’m in Japan!!!]

[I know, silly, I saw the previews XP]

[Oh you did? I wanted to surprise]

I chuckled, imagining the disappointed face that he was making at that very moment; though I was giddy at the thought of being able to see him again soon. It felt a bit strange because, I was on my way out to the venue of the fanmeeting right then. It would be the first time to see him perform both as a fan, and as his girlfriend at the same time. Actually, we hadn’t even discussed those details yet… how was that going to work?

[Come my hotel!]

[This is the address!]

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

[I miss youuuuuuuu!!!]

He mailed, along with a moping selca of himself sprawled over a very generic hotel bed.

[I can’t] I typed, biting my lip even as I did.

[Why not?]

[I’m heading out now. To the fanmeeting]

[Noona, it’s too early!!] I could imagine him laughing.

[Come here first!]

[I can’t. My friends are waiting for me there.]

[Oh… you have ARMY friends?]

[Yes. And they live far. I can only meet them when there’s events…]

[Oh…]

[And this has been planned for such a long time…]

[They’ll think it’s weird if I suddenly don’t show up.]

[Even you say to meet your very handsome boyfriend?]

I laughed. [Yes Tae. And I haven’t told them I got a bf yet.]

I knew he was sulking because he sent me a series of ridiculous angry and disappointed looking stickers, yet he didn’t reply anything else for a full minute.

[Alright then.]

[You better give extra kisses for this…]

He answered, followed by yet another ridiculous snarky character sticker.

I smiled, shaking my head as I put the phone away and stepped out the door.

I met up with my friends in the merch line about an hour later: Reina, a pint-sized, chubby girl with short hair, who was around my age, and Haruka, her little protégée, who was taller, thinner and prettier than either of us, with her large, innocent eyes and 19 years old-ness. They were both half-Japanese, from central Japan and had spent the last 10 hours on a bus just to get here. I’d only actually met them once before, so it was good to see them again.

We spent most of the day waiting in line for goods, in the horrible, horrible, Japanese summer heat. It was a terrible idea, really. We all knew we should’ve gone earlier, but I was too jetlagged and they had only arrived in Tokyo around 10:30 in the morning, so it was inevitable, I guess. Still, it was fun because we hadn’t seen each other in a long time and we all chatted happily as the line inched along. By the time we finally managed to get our goods, my feet felt like sodden mashed potatoes already.

We’d gotten separated – getting sent to different registers to pay – but met up again by some benches to the left of the merch booth. I plopped down on the ground as we all started going through our stock. We had all bought a lot, though I’d gotten less than I’d originally planned since some of the things I wanted were already sold out.

“Since when do you like V?” Reina asked me curiously, watching me slip on a red V wristband on my left arm, even before donning the green one on my right. “I thought you’d get Hope-Mon, at least?”

“Aaah…” I answered, sheepishly, racking my brain for an appropriate answer, “I guess you could say I kinda started liking him more over the summer…” I finished, grinning stupidly, and they both looked at me really weird.

“Ah well, you won’t hear me complain…” she went on, “Finally, you’re leaving my man alone!!” she exclaimed, and we all cracked up. Reina was a BIG Rapmon fan.

The fanmeeting was cute, funny and adorable. It was basically 2 whole hours of the boys performing little skits, full of fan-service, interspersed with a few songs here and there. Once it ended, we all met up again down the stairs and started cooing excitedly about our favorite bits. I quite forgot that I was even anything more than just a fangirl for the next 30 minutes, until I felt my phone buzzing in my bag.

It was a message from V saying he’d be back at his hotel in about 2 hours and couldn’t wait to see me, with lots of little hearts and kisses… like… LOTS of them. It made me crack up. I wrote back, saying that my friends and I were headed for food and karaoke so I didn’t know when I would actually be able to meet up with him, but I didn’t get an immediate reply so I just put my phone back in my bag and tried to follow the conversation that my two friends were having.

*

Shin-Okubo, if you don’t know, is the “Korea-town” of Tokyo. But basically, it’s just 4 blocks of Korean restaurants and idol shops. It felt a little cliché to head on over there after the concert, but my friends were from out of town and really wanted to, so I indulged them. Plus this date had been planned for a really long time and we had all been looking forward to it. We went to this chicken restaurant that looked more like an izakaya than an actual restaurant and ordered some food and drinks.

Halfway through the meal, I finally got a reply from Taehyung.

[Sorry. Interview.]

[You’re not coming??]

He sent a pouty face sticker.

[I’ll come later, but I promised my friends…] I replied.

When he didn’t reply I assumed that he was sulking again so I put the phone down and resumed the conversation with the girls. When it rang again, I ignored it. But instead of the one short buzz of a text message, it kept buzzing again and again, and I realized someone was trying to call.

“Aren’t you gonna get that?” asked Haruka, looking at me pointedly.

I just stared at the dreaded thing, not really knowing what to do. If I didn’t answer, I’d hurt Tae’s feelings, but if I did, they would know something was up. Reluctantly, I grabbed the phone and pressed the call button.

“Hey…” I answered, as quietly as I could, looking away from my friends.

“Noona, I miss youuuuu!!!!” Tae’s cute whiney voice busted into my eardrum and I pressed my lips together to suppress the idiot smile I knew was coming over them. “Come see me! Now!” he ordered.

“I told, you, I can’t! I’m with my friends, we’re eating.”

He made an exaggerated sigh in response and I chuckled.

“Aren’t you eating too?” I asked, hearing voices behind him and the clinking of glasses and utensils.

“Yes, but only because noona is busy…” he went on, dramatically, “Aaaaaahh! My girlfriend treats me so bad...!!!”

I couldn’t help chuckling, “Yes, I’m so horrible to you…” I told him, affectionately.

Someone said something to him and I heard him reply in Korean before he came back to me. “You’ll come after? Promise?”

“I promise.”

“Ok. I wait. Bye noona.”

“Bye.”

And I hung up before he could force me to say ‘I love you’ to him.

Once I was done, I looked up and my friends were both staring at me with quiet smirks on their faces.

“What?” I asked, like I had nothing to be embarrassed about.

“Who was thaaaat?” asked Reina in a sing-song voice, as if we were 12 years old.

“Hum… I kinda met someone recently… but it’s still super new…”

“Ooooooooooh!!!” they both cooed together.

“Well, come on then, tell us! Is he cute? Do you have a picture?? Where’d you meet him?!”

Haruka threw question after question at me like this was a police interrogation, and I just kinda sat there with my mouth open trying to think of how to come up with a convincing lie. Luckily, I was saved by Reina’s phone ringing. It was our 3^rd friend Yumi, who hadn’t been able to come today because of work, but had still wanted to meet up afterwards. She was waiting for us outside the karaoke place a few blocks down, so we quickly packed up, paid, and left to go meet her.

This was the main reason we’d bothered coming down all the way over here, actually. Several months ago, when BTS had released their first full-length Japanese album, they’d also released a special, BTS-themed karaoke room in Shin-Okubo, it being Korea-town and all… The event was supposed to only last until June, but it had proven to be so popular that it was still up and running now, at the end of August. We’d gotten reservations for it weeks in advance, and this was why I kinda felt like I couldn’t pull out at the last minute to run off into the arms of my besotted boyfriend.

The room was square and had couches running uninterrupted along the walls, except for the one that held the karaoke system and the huge TV. But unlike a regular karaoke room, everything in there was branded BTS – even the low, square table in the center. When no one was singing, video banners of all 7 members were projected on all 4 walls, and bits of the Japanese version of “Danger” could be heard over the sound system. It was corny as hell, but if you happened to be a fangirl, it was actually pretty cool. There was even a special machine that would project the music videos for all their Japanese releases straight onto the wall. And of course, they had Bangtan’s entire discography.

We sang everything, even though it ended up being mostly us just going “na na na” to the beat cuz none of us could speak Korean, or even do the Japanese rap parts, but it was really fun. After a while, we got bored of just singing Bangtan songs so everyone just started singing whatever they liked. Around 11pm, Tae started spamming me with messages again, and since I felt bad for leaving him hanging, I spent most of the time I wasn’t singing replying to him.

“Ooh look at her… so in loooooove” Reina teased me, and I looked up from a cute selca of Tae making a puppy face that he’d just sent me with a really stupid expression on my face. She burst out laughing.

Tae sent another picture, this time of him jumping backwards on the bed, and I broke into a grin as I glanced at it, briefly wondering who it was that had taken it.

“Oh my god…” Yumi rolled her eyes, “What is he sending you that’s making you pull that face?” she said, and at the same moment, she swooped in and grabbed my phone out of my hand.

“Hey!!” I shouted, panicking, “Give that back!!”

“Oooh, he’s sending her selcas! Aww…” she said, evading my grasp and running over to Reina to show her.

“Aww… he says he misses you!!” Reina joined in.

“Guys, please, it’s private…” I pleaded.

“Noona, when you come?” she went on out loud, laughing as she held me at bay, “Wait, is he Korean?” she suddenly paused, holding the phone out to her left and I took that moment of distraction to swipe it out of her hand and cast her an angry look.

“Yes…” I admitted reluctantly.

“ii naaa…” said Yumi, wistfully, with a grumpy face in my direction.

“And he’s youuuuungeeeerr….” cooed Reina, gwaffing at the same time.

“I dunno why you’re surprised, she always dates younger guys…” Haruka called from the back of the room.

I gave them a half-annoyed, half-embarrassed smile, walking back to my side of the room and sitting down, holding the phone protectively against my chest.

“Well, no wonder you like Taehyung now…” said Reina, like an afterthought.

“What?!” I squeaked, my voice much higher than I’d meant it to.

“That guy could be his twin!” my friend went on, casting me a strange look.

“Oh…” I said, calming down, “Yes… he looks a lot like him…”

“What! Really?!” exclaimed Haruka, suddenly interested, “Show me!!” she scooted over.

And since there was no avoiding it, I showed her the last two pictures, thankful for the bad lighting and the fact that he’d thrown his arm over his face in that last one, hiding his most recognizable rectangular smile.

“Omg, he dooooes! You’re so lucky!!”

Somehow, I managed to escape the rest of the hour unscathed and they left me alone about my new boytoy after realizing that I obviously didn’t wanna talk about it. We parted ways at the train station, where I left them claiming that I needed to take another train line to get home, and that station was a few more blocks down. Technically, it wasn’t a lie. That was the station I would have taken… if I’d been going home. Instead, I hopped into a taxi, giving the driver the address to V’s hotel from my phone and he took off.