Chapter 14 – Dealing With Jungkookie

Only seconds after my shy knock on the door, it burst open and I was suddenly pulled inside the room by a strong pair of arms. I laughed at his typical over the top reaction, but didn’t even get to utter any kind of greeting as he threw himself against me, hands on both sides of my head, holding it firmly in place as he pummeled me with his lips. “Tae!!” I managed to call out, chuckling, in between a few of the attacks. He didn’t bother replying, only pressing his mouth against mine more violently, and deepening the kiss as he tried to maneuver me backwards towards the bed.

I’ll admit, the ferocity of his attack was rather arousing, but somehow I couldn’t help but find the whole thing incredibly amusing.

“Wait, wait…” I managed to call out, as his kisses started roaming over other parts of my face and neck.

“I missed you all day!!” he exclaimed, not stopping, and pushing me backwards on the bed before jumping on top of me.

“Yah, Kim Taehyung!” I laughed, as he stared me down with a cheeky look on his face, “Aren’t you sharing this room with someone?” I asked, glancing at the other bed meaningfully, but he just pulled my face back towards his and kept pelting it with more kisses.

“Jungkook.” he answered, without stopping what he was doing, “But he’s in the gym now.”

I had to struggle quite a bit to evade his lips and ask my next question, “What if he comes back?”

“No way.” he answered, firmly, completely undeterred by the half-hearted fight I was putting up, “He gonna be there for hours.” he went on, slipping his hands under my shirt as he went for my ear.

“But it’s already midnight!” I protested, weakly.

“Shushhh… more kisses” he scolded me, very seriously, and though I wanted to laugh, I obliged.

We spent a few moments lost in each other’s arms, enjoying the taste of each other’s lips, and I grew more and more heated with each kiss. I could already feel him getting hard, and there was no denying I wanted him as well, but I couldn’t help feeling like his roommate would pop in at any moment.

Luckily for us, he didn’t.

As soon as we were done, I scrambled out of bed to put my clothes back on, but Taehyung just laughed at me, remaining there in the bed, lazing around like a sated kitten for a minute, before throwing his arms out at me, opening and closing his fingers and pouting, as a sign that he wanted me to come back in bed with him. I rolled my eyes, a small smile playing on my lips, and instead tossed his underwear at his face, urging him to put some clothes on. He stopped moving and looked at me with this fake, distraught expression, mouth hanging open as the shorts fell in his lap, and I burst out laughing. Then his adorable smile was back in an instant and he just beamed at me.

I heard a small beeping sound behind me, but before I could register what it was, the door swung open, and Jungkook strolled in, unbothered, until he saw me standing there and stopped dead in his tracks. Then he turned towards Tae, taking in the undressed state of his friend as well as the unmade bed, and his eyes widened.

“Oh, Kookie you’re back!” called out my boy, with a friendly wave, completely unperturbed; or at least, that’s what I assumed he said since it was in Korean.

Jungkook glanced back at me, face bright red in embarrassment and gave me a small nod, which I returned, equally mortified. I quietly sat down on the edge of the bed, and watched as a short, awkward Korean conversation followed, of which I of course understood nothing. Kookie asked something in an uncertain tone, and Tae laughed in answer, causing his friend to scrunch up his face in disgust and call out “Yah! Hyung!!” plus slew of more Korean that sounded like he was scolding the older boy; but V just laughed. I wanted to crawl into the ground.

Jungkook marched over to his bed, obviously irritated, giving me the tinniest of bows, as he mumbled “Sorry, noona…” without meeting my eyes.

I watched him grab his duffle bag and start fussing with its contents, obviously doing his best to avoid looking at us, and somehow the whole situation just suddenly seemed so ridiculous that I wanted to laugh. I had to bite my lip quite hard to prevent myself from doing so.

“I should go…….” I finally said in a quiet voice, breaking the silence.

“No!” exclaimed Taetae, turning to look at me and pulling me into his lap, wrapping his arms around me as if he really meant to not let me go.

“It’s already 2am… I gotta meet my friends at 6am tomorrow… and you need your sleep too…” I protested, gently, putting a hand over his.

“6?! Why??” he asked, his mouth opening comically wide in shock.

“We’re gonna line up for merch… it’s better early…” I tried to explain.

“But you did today?”

I saw the question in his face and for a moment I thought it hilarious that I had to explain fangirl logistics to my idol boyfriend, but I guess he really didn’t know how it worked.

“Some stuff I wanted was sold out today.”

“If you want a stuff, you ask me! I get for you…” he whined, trying to be a good boyfriend. Or maybe it was just so I would agree to stay longer.

I smiled and his hair, “That’s sweet Tae, but the real problem is my friends… how would I explain that them? If I didn’t come it would be really suspicious…” I argued as he started playing with the fingers of my other hand.

He looked up at me, unconvinced; or he simply didn’t get it.

“They already almost found out today when you were texting me selcas.” I went on, rather sadly, letting my hand drop from his head into my lap.

“Really??”

I nodded.

“They stole my phone cuz they wanted to see my boyfriend.”

“You said them I’m your boyfriend?” he grinned stupidly.

That was not the response I’d been expecting.

“No, I said I had a boyfriend.” I corrected him.

His stupid grin didn’t vanish.

“Why are you making that face?” I asked, looking at him funny.

“You said boyfriend.” he said, in a sing-song voice, like he was 5y.o.

I scrunched up my face in annoyance.

“I’m boyfriend.” he repeated, putting his arms around me again and I rolled my eyes, finally getting it, though it was hard not to smile.

He beamed at me, then nuzzled my face and whispered “I’m happy.” right into my ear.

I found myself grinning stupidly as well. I closed my eyes, leaning in to him, but then…

“Yah!! Korean, Korean, Korean!!!”

My eyes snapped open and I saw Jungkook, still standing over his bed, a towel in hand, glaring at us. I hunched my shoulders sheepishly; Taehyung sporting a similarly embarrassed grin as he avoided looking back at his younger friend. Kookie stared us down for one more second, before letting out a loud “umph!” and storming into the bathroom.

“What did he say?” I asked in a whisper, trying not to crack up.

“I’m still here.” V whispered back.

***

The next day was more of the same, though I could barely keep my eyes open half the time. Since we’d gotten in line for merch so early, we were already done by the time 11am rolled around and spent most of the day lounging in a little alcove inside the venue. My friends were chatting away and it was hard to follow the japanese conversation in my sleep-deprived state, so I announced I was going to get coffee. Haruka decided to tag along and so we went to Starbucks to get some frappuccinos.

On our way back, V mailed, telling me he’d arrived at the venue and asking if I could sneak out to meet him. I looked at my friends, who were still deep in conversation with another girl they knew and decided to chance it. I got up, announcing that I was going to stretch my legs and asking them to guard my stuff. They nodded, not giving me a second glance.

I followed Tae’s directions to a roundabout way inside the exhibit hall, and a staff person met me at the back entrance to let me in. It was a chubby Korean girl with thick, rectangular glasses, and she didn’t say a word to me the entire time, only communicating with hand signals when she wanted me to follow along. I was surprised when she didn’t bring me to a waiting room, but straight into the auditorium. She brought me down to the very front of the stage, pointed to the floor, indicating that I should stay there, and just left.

I looked around, taking in the enormous, empty room, and couldn’t help feeling that it was just a tad creepy, standing there by myself, with only the safety lights along the stage giving off any kind of illumination. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long and Taehyung strolled in a moment later, sporting a look that I could only describe as “pajama chic”. I’m not even joking. He had on this loose red sweater, that he’d cut up around the neck – exposing his collarbones rather indecently, and constantly threatening to slip off his shoulder – as well as a pair of white pinstriped pants that looked like he’d stolen them from a much shorter and fatter old man. Yet he still looked ridiculously beautiful. He didn’t have his stage makeup on yet, but his hair had been curled into little waves – a look that I wasn’t exactly fond of… but he was still annoyingly cute. As he got close enough for his eyes to meet mine, his face broke into a smile so wide, I realized I really didn’t care at all.

He beamed when he saw me, which made him even cuter and though I expected him to run and jump on me, he just strolled down the aisle and stopped right in front of me, smiling. I looked up expectantly, and he just tugged on my shirt, pulling me closer to him without a word. Then he wrapped his arms around me and placed his head on my shoulder, cooing “Noona…” as he hugged me tightly. It was such a sweet and unexpected gesture that I didn’t know how to react, and somehow, it made me tear up a little.

We stayed in the auditorium for maybe 30 minutes. We sat in seats near the front and he held on to my hand while he chattered away about some of the things they’d been doing that day. Then after a while, the same staff girl came to tell him that he had to go get ready and brought me back to the secret entrance. When I rejoined my friends they asked if I’d gotten lost and I lied, saying I’d struck up a conversation with some Japanese girls and lost track of time. They bought it, and that was the end of that.

The show came and went and it was funny and cute, just like the day before, and after it ended, my friends and I lingered around the venue for a bit and finally went for coffee, but I was dead from the lack of sleep and quickly excused myself. They had to catch their bus back to Nagoya in about an hour anyways, so we said our goodbyes and I left.

As tired as I felt, when V asked me to meet him at his hotel a bit later, I agreed right away. I don’t know what it was, but the few minutes we’d spent together in the auditorium during the afternoon had unlocked something in me, and I felt a pressing need to see him again and hide inside his arms. I think that it was the fact that he was so affectionate that was quickly reducing all my defenses to dust. Japanese guys are not really the most cuddly lovers, and I couldn’t remember the last time that I’d felt so wanted. I didn’t wanna admit it, but I was falling hard and fast.

Once again, the door swung open violently only moments after I’d knocked, but this time, it was Jungkook standing there staring at me. I tried to give him a friendly, yet somewhat embarrassed smile, but he just gave me a flat look before turning around back into the room, leaving the door wide open with me standing awkwardly on the other side. I stood there for a moment, before finally deciding to step in, and closed the door quietly behind me. Tae jumped off the bed and bounded towards me, greeting me warmly and scolding Jungkook at the same time.

The black haired boy just sat on his bed, his attention on the television, and it didn’t look like he was registering any of Taehyung’s words. Tae took a step towards him, as if he was going to say something else to his younger friend, but I grabbed his wrist and shook my head.

“Don’t...” I said quietly, “It must be so awkward for him…”

V looked up at me with a disappointed puppy face, but I knew he understood. I was about to suggest that we go somewhere else so as not to annoy him when the door burst open again and Jimin bounded into the room, chattering loudly, but stopping in his tracks when he spotted me and Tae just standing there in the hallway.

“Oh!” he exclaimed, his pretty lips puckering up into a tiny ‘O’, “Emma, hello.”

I smiled at him cuz he looked so cute with that dumbstruck expression and returned the greeting. He quickly regained his composure, and asked us if we wanted to join him and Hobi in their room to watch a movie.

“Of course, Emma-noona can come too.” he told me in his rudimentary English, his eyes crinkling prettily as he smiled.

I looked up at Tae, who gave me a goofy little smile and shrug, as if to say it was my call, and then I looked back at Jungkook, a guilty expression on my face, wondering if I should accept. Jimin, however, saved me the trouble, putting a hand on my shoulder and saying, “Don’t mind Jungkookie,” and then much louder, to make sure he’d hear, “He is jealous pabo!” before chuckling to himself and widening his eyes at me expectantly.

“Yah!!” the angry cry came from the back of the room and we all chuckled.

“Come on!” said Jimin, opening the door for us, and then something else in Korean, which was probably along the lines of “I’ll deal with Jungkookie.”