Chapter 33 – Couple Things

For the first 3 days of the new year, I was by myself. The boys were very busy finishing their promotions for RUN during the first 2 days, and Rapmon – though still not 100% off the hook with his doctor – had been cleared to at least start exercising again and return to the studio. Also, he refused to start off the new year by being lazy, so I’d lost my movie-watching buddy.

I spent the first day of the year mostly recovering from my hangover and skyping my entire family one after the other; and truth be told, I didn’t do much on the second day either. On the third one, I kicked myself in the to go at least walk around Hongdae – which is where my guesthouse was – watching the street performances and having both lunch and dinner in cute little cafes. I didn’t hear much from Tae during that time, though I’d usually at least get a good morning message (that I strongly suspected him to send before he went to bed) and a good night one, at the time he probably thought I was going to bed… He was always very apologetic that he was so busy and couldn’t talk, but kept making me promise to “please not leave yet”, which was cute.

My plan for the 4^th day was gonna be much the same as the 3^rd, since I’m just a rather lazy individual, but that got thrown out the window around 11am, while I was in the middle of my make-up routine. A knock on the door of my shared room (which I did not share with anyone at the moment) made me look up, and the landlady’s head poked in.

“Oh good, you’re up.” she said, eyes zooming in on me.

I looked up at her in surprise, wondering what the heck she could want with me. I mean she was nice, but usually didn’t actively come seek me out for anything unless there was some kind of trouble, so I didn’t know if I should worry or anything.

“There’s someone here to see you,” she said, pointing a thumb behind her, back to the entrance hallway that was hidden from view by a glassy door, “your friend?” she added, innocently, trying to hide a smile.

“Eh?” I answered stupidly, getting up and following her into the living room.

“He didn’t wanna come up…” she shrugged, grinning broadly now, and it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks who this ‘friend’ must be.

I’m pretty sure my guesthouse landlady didn’t know Bangtan well enough to be able to recognize the members on sight, but, she had eyes; She knew there was an incredibly pretty Korean boy waiting for me in the hallway. That alone would be enough for a thorough interrogation later on, I’m sure.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, trying my best not to rush down the stairs to greet him, and sure enough, once I’d pulled back that sliding door, it was Taehyung standing there, in all his perfectly sculpted glory. Even more than usual, he looked all prim and proper, hands behind his back, grinning at me with that not-quite-innocent smile I’d come to love so much. He’d flicked his too-long hair out of his eyes, so it was almost parted in the center, revealing his eyebrows, but other than that he was wearing what I could only describe as “dressed-up casual”. He had on a nice pair of dark jeans, some brown loafers, a beige button-down shirt with a print that I couldn’t really see, hidden under a dark leather motorcycle jacket, doubled-up with a mutton collar. He looked smart, and like a dashing bad-boy all at the same time. I wanted to punch him. (for being so irritatingly perfect, and catching me in my Hello Kitty pajamas).

Just as I was about to open my mouth – though I’m not sure what I would have said exactly… What the heck are you doing here? How do you know where I’m staying? Aren’t you afraid of someone recognizing you? Why are you so hot? But I didn’t get to ask any of that because the moment I opened my mouth, he brought his hands forward in one swift gesture to present me with a massive bouquet of flowers, and that shut me right up. I didn’t know their names (what with not having received a lot in my life… *angry mutterings*) but it was a pretty arrangement of blues and purples, with a little bit of tiny white ones, and like I said, it was huge. His smile, also, was huge, and he seemed extremely pleased with himself as he gently forced the flowers upon me.

“Taehyung-ah…” I whispered, speechless, pressing my nose into them and coming up pleased to find that they didn’t smell very strongly; that was one of my pet peeves. I wanted to scold him, for all the reasons that he shouldn’t be here, but I couldn’t.

“I have day off today.” he grinned at me, “So I wanted to go on a date with my girl.”

“You what?!” I exclaimed, bringing the flowers down.

“Day off.” he repeated, seeming so proud. “4 days! But tomorrow, I go meet my family…” he added, a little sadly, as if I’d be somehow disappointed by this perfectly understandable fact, “but today is for you.” he finished, holding on to one of my hands and looking at me with the sweetest smile.

I bit my lip and craned my neck around, to make sure that the landlady wasn’t snooping at the top of the stairs, letting the bouquet droop down to my side, and only turned back once I was reassured that she wasn’t. He brought his arms around my back to pull me closer, looking down into my eyes, and I let myself bury my face into his chest while he held me close to him. He’d even put cologne on. I felt my head swim.

I just wanted to stay there like this; in this perfect moment in his arms, but finally, I felt him give me a little nudge, so I looked up and he placed a very soft, slow kiss on my lips.

“Now go.” he said, very suddenly, smacking my , and I looked up at him, in dumb puzzlement.

“You always look beautiful to me, but you got one eye no eyeliner… looks a little crazy.” he finished his statement chuckling loudly and I felt myself going bright red.

I suddenly remembered I was in the middle of doing my makeup when he came in unannounced, and I had totally forgotten about it. I rushed back up the few steps, turning to tell him he could come with but he said he was fine waiting there.

The owner was sitting on the couch watching TV when I came up and watched me go again with a little corner smile, as I ran back out of my room 5 minutes later, throwing a jacket over my shoulders, and not-so-innocently asked “do you need those put in water?” barely even looking up from her program.

I stopped in my tracks and flashed her an embarrassed smile before nodding. “Thank you.” I mumbled, before rushing out to meet Tae.

***

“So where are we going?” I asked, stepping outside the building as he held the door open for me.

He nodded in front of us with his chin and I recognized the old, black Bangtan van.

My face fell a bit “You got your manager to drive us?!” I asked, incredulously.

He shrugged in embarrassment as he answered, “Well I can’t drive yet, so……” avoiding my eyes as he did, and it was atrociously cute so I just pressed my lips together and let him push me inside the car.

Sejin-oppa (hey, now, don’t look at me… he’s the one who insisted I start calling him that, since he actually was older than me… though I just think he got a kick out of seeing Tae flinch every time I said the word, and that was the real reason.) first drove us back to the BigHit building, which I thought was a little weird. The empty corridors gave off a spooky vibe, with all the lights turned off and none of its usual little worker bees filling the space with noise. Tae led us to a room I’d never entered at the end of the hall, and dismissed Sejin before we entered, telling him to pick us up again in about an hour.

I was thoroughly confused as we entered the brightly lit room. Inside were several “hairdresser chairs” and makeup stations, but all of them were empty, and only one tiny girl, sitting on a sofa in the corner, looked up from her phone as Taehyung barged in rather loudly.

She greeted him with something that wasn’t hello, and there was a short conversation I didn’t follow before he switched to English to introduce her to me. “Noona, this is Jiyoon-noona. She’s going to do our makeup.”

I took the extended hand to shake it and returned her small smile. Of course, this wasn’t my first time seeing her; and it wasn’t even the first time he’d introduced her to me, but I didn’t really see the point in reminding him. I was kinda busy giggling to myself mentally about the amount of “noonas” his previous sentence had contained, until some of his words struck me and I did a double-take to stare back at him, “Wait, what did you say?! Our makeup?!”

He looked back at me with this childish, up-to-no-good, rectangular smile for his only answer and dragged me over to one of the makeup chairs before plopping himself down on the one next to it.

“Tae, I thought you wanted to go on a date?” I asked, puzzled but amused.

“I do. I mean, we are.” He answered, as the girl walked over, pushing along a little cart full of shelves with drawers, little crates, and various compartments laden with make-up and other implements I couldn’t even comprehend. “But this is Seoul, you know,” he pursed his lips at me, “if you and me go out on a date, maybe fans will see, maybe too many people follow… maybe we have to leave… maybe… ” he trailed off, “I want to be able to be with you like real date; like real man.” He finished.

I looked at him, as the makeup girl started applying some sort of cream to his face, touched, but failing to see the point. “So….?”

“So we wear costume!!” he exclaimed, so pleased with himself.

“You’re not serious.” I answered flatly, but he just grinned at me. “Tae, you wear makeup every single day and have dyed your hair every color of the rainbow already. That’s not gonna fool anyone.”

Apparently, he was serious though. And his plan ended up being not quite as half-assed as I’d thought. Jiyoon, as it turned out, had majored in theatrical makeup and managed to – with the help of contacts, a wig, and some prosthetics – transform my very Korean boyfriend’s face into that of a very pretty-looking white boy. He looked nothing like himself.

He turned towards me, grinning like an idiot and I just looked at him dumbfounded. His hair was a wavy mess of ashy waves, his eyes a dirty shade of blue, not unlike my own, with much heavier lids than he normally had. His eyebrows were a completely different shape, and his cheekbones not as prominent as usual. His face was rounder, his chin flatter, but more prominent, and the whole thing just generally…… pinker.

“Do I look handsome?” he asked, posing with a hand behind his head and I replied, “I prefer the original version better.”

He stuck his tongue out at me and grinned widely again. Even his smile looked different, it was the freakiest thing. Then he came to stand behind me, putting his hands on my shoulders and went, “Now you.”

“Me?” I exclaimed, “What do you mean, me?!” I understood the need for his disguise, but I was just another tourist, there was no need for me to disguise myself.

“Well, it’s no fun if I’m the only one playing, right?” he said, pouting a little, before moving aside to give Jiyoon free reign over my face. She nodded at him, approaching me with all of her tools and a little corner smirk that didn’t reassure me at all.

When she was done, I was sporting dark circle lenses, a long wig of lustrous black hair, and my face had been transformed into her best approximation of a Korean beauty. I looked in the mirror, standing next to Tae and it was like we had basically switched places. We were still an inter-racial couple; we’d just reversed genders.

I thought we were done when she left after taking a picture with the both of us, but she came back a moment later with two identical large shopping bags and dumped one into each of our laps.

“Costume is not complete without clothes.” She said, patting me on the shoulder before giving me a little wink and finally letting herself out.

Taehyung grabbed his bag and hopped off his chair without a word, wandering over to the corner with the couch and throwing his shirt unceremoniously over his head without a hint of shame.

Even though I had seen him several times, I still felt a little weird just watching him change like that, so I turned back around and peaked inside the bag. It contained a light pair of damaged jeans, a white oversized cotton sweater, a little white cap and a black bomber jacket. I guessed I really would look like a Korean girl dressed up like that.

I got up the chair, quickly dressed down to my undies and put the jeans on as fast as I could. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that they fit perfectly, but they did. So I threw on the rest, only realizing later on that there was also a pair of shoes at the bottom of the bag – a pair of black-n-white PUMAs – so I put them on too.

Finally, I turned around, and a look of sheer horror crossed my face as I lay eyes on Tae. “Oh no…….”

“Couple clothes!” he squealed like a happy child while I wailed.

From head to toe, we were dressed EXACTLY alike. I mean sure, couple shoes or couple phone cases, whatever… but everything?? This was a bit extreme.

I wanted to be mad at him but he looked so pleased with himself, I couldn’t. and the fact that he had to go through all that trouble, just to go on one stupid date with me, well it broke my heart too. So I just sighed deeply and put a smile on my face.

“And where are we going then, dressed like identical trained monkeys?” I asked, though he missed the sarcasm in my tone.

“To the zoo!!”