Chapter 4 – Like Old Days

The second time I saw him was about a month later. The boys had come to Japan again to record another program, and this time it was a big secret, since they didn’t have any official promos scheduled. Since it was all very hush-hush, I couldn’t go meet him, but he told me that he’d mail me when he was done for the day, so I waited.

I was at my favorite coffee shop after work, reading a book, when I got a message from him asking “Noona, where are you?” I told him I was at a café near the station and he asked me what station, so I told him, to which he just replied, “Ok, I’m coming.”

“WHAT?!?” I typed in the text box, coupled with a shocked emoji, but he even though my text marked ‘read’, he never replied after that. As usual, he seemed to enjoy tormenting me.

I groaned internally because I was still in my work clothes, which – although not terrible – weren’t what you really wanted to be wearing when you went to meet up with a boy as good-looking as he. I would regret my choice of clothing even more later on…

About 20 minutes later, my phone beeped with a new message, and all it said was “HERE!”

I cursed and hastily grabbed my stuff before running out of the store. The café was literally less than 50 steps from the station entrance, so it didn’t take me long to spot him and two others, making their way in my direction.

I gawked as I recognized the two boys flanking him. One was wearing a bucket hat over his dark hair, and a white hoodie – even though it was already quite warm out, and the other was tall, skinny, and dressed all in black, with a black snapback covering most of  his blonde head. It wasn’t hard for me to identify them immediately as J-Hope and Rapmonster.

“Noona, close your mouth.” Taehyung said to me as a greeting, grinning like an idiot, obviously pleased with the effect his little surprise had had on me.

“Hi.” Rapmon extended his hand towards me and smiled. I shook it.

“I hope you don’t mind us tagging along. We were bored and kinda wanted to see the noona this kid is always rambling on about. I’m Namjoon.” he smiled and a dimple popped in his cheek. I tried very hard to remain standing.

“He talks about me?” I asked stupidly.

I tried to sound normal but my heart was beating so fast I thought they would surely catch me: Here is this fangirl, masquerading as your bandmate’s friend, I’ve been caught.

“Oh yeah,” said J-Hope, in much better English than I would’ve given him credit for, “it’s really… uh…… annoy.” he said, and then finished it off with his trademark laugh, his mouth making a heart and his eyes crinkling into half-moons, while Namjoon whispered “Annoying, not annoyed…”

“I’m not annoying!!” retorted V, punching his elder’s shoulder but laughing even more.

“I’m Hoseok. Nice t’meet you.” the dark-haired boy introduced himself to me, all the while trying to escape V’s blows.

“I’m Emma.” I replied dumbfounded.

“Is there anywhere good to eat around here? I’m starving!” said Rapmon, and I stuttered a bit to find my words, finally answering that there were a lot of restaurants here, but mostly foreign foods, like Indian, American or Thai…

“Well you’re the one who lives here, you choose!” he said, flashing me that dimple again and I had to look away. I ended up telling them about my favorite Indian restaurant, which was just a few blocks away and they were sold, so that’s where we went.

Tae grabbed my arm and held on to me the whole way there, talking loudly about how he’d missed me, and wasn’t I happy that he’d brought my two favorite boys with him?

I turned deep red in embarrassment at that comment. So that HAD been on purpose.

Rapmon smirked when he heard that and whispered something to Hobi (whom I think hadn’t understood) and he also looked in my direction and winked. I didn’t think it was possible to get anymore embarrassed than I already was, and yet, that small gesture did it. As a fan, J-Hope had always been my favorite, and Rapmon came a close second behind him. V knew that of course, but I felt so ashamed of him just casually throwing it out like that, while I was trying to play it cool, that I just wanted to crawl into the ground and hide.

We walked into the tiny restaurant and the waiter ushered us onto the second floor. I caught the odd look on his face seeing me walk in with 3 ridiculously attractive boys, and sighed. The staff here actually knew me very well. My ex and I had been regulars at this place before we broke up, and afterwards they had always seemed waaay too interested in my marital status for comfort, so I usually tried not to bring guys in here.

Anyways, we had a really nice meal. Taehyung was super loud, as usual, and it was so much fun talking with the 3 of them. Soon, I lost my shyness at them being the boys that I idolized and it was just like talking with old friends. Rapmon was really clever and insightful, but also a little dorky, and Hobi was nice and really funny but also kinda sweet, though I could tell he sometimes had a hard time following, especially if Namjoon and I were having a really fast-paced English debate. V had the same problem, except that, as opposed to the latter, whenever he’d lose track of the conversation and get bored, he would just -in loudly and change the subject. We’d indulge him because we knew it was rather unfair to the both of them to keep going, and switched back to more casual topics. Similarly, they also kept the Korean at a minimum, for my sake, which was quite nice of them.

When we walked out of the restaurant two hours later, it was dark, and we were stuffed. Actually, I didn’t even understand how they could even walk since they had all ordered a second helping of naan. That restaurant had been “all-you-can-eat”. I teased them about being on a diet and they said they only dieted when they have promos. Rapmon and V also said that they rarely diet anyways because they’re just naturally very skinny. I sulked jealously and they teased me a little, saying that I was pretty and girls shouldn’t diet too much.

I started to say goodbye as we’d reached the station and V grabbed me saying “Nooo!!! Let’s go noona’s house!!”

“What?!” I exclaimed, baffled by the suggestion, “No way!!” I shook my head vehemently.

My place was a tiny one-room apartment which was always and forever a mess. Also, I had a BTS poster on my wall and was mortified at the idea of them coming over and seeing it.

I started saying they were probably busy and I didn’t want to keep them any longer, but the two elders shrugged, saying they had the night off. I suggested going drinking at an izakaya instead and though Rapmon and J-Hope seemed ok with the idea, V kept complaining that he wanted to go to my house.

“I know!” he exclaimed, “Let’s buy some drinks and drink at noona’s house! Like old days!”

“He means like old times.” said Rapmon, helpfully.

“You’ve never drank at my house, how can it be like old times?” I asked him stupidly, distracted from the point.

“Aah… I think he means… When we were trainees, if we didn’t have practice the next day, we often bought beer and drank at home, just dicking around.” said blondie, helpfully.

“Yes, yes, around.” V nodded like a happy puppy and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Wait, wasn’t he too young for this?” I wondered, after doing the mental math, and the two others just shrugged and I shook my head, tisking at them like the teacher that I was.

“You gonna tell on us?” Rapmon winked at me and I felt myself go all gooey inside and blushed as I said no. Thankfully, it was too dark out for them to see. Probably.

“Well, I’d love to have you over but, my place is really messy…” I argued.

“It’s ok, we’re slobs too.” Rapmon went on, referring to V and himself. “That one might have a problem, but at worse he’ll just start cleaning for you.” he chuckled, slapping Hobi’s shoulder, who sported the smile of someone who didn’t understand a word.

There was a pause as Rapmon translated the joke and J-Hope’s expression quickly changed.

“No, no,” Hobi waved his hands in front of him, “It’s ok, don’t worry,” and flashed me a big smile.

“Well… not just that but it’s really small… and there’s nowhere to sit…” I started, making more excuses.

“You got posters on your walls don’t you..?” Rapmon smirked at me.

“WHAT?!” I exclaimed, in over-the-top outrage to cover the rising blush in my cheeks, “What do you take me for, I’m not 12?!”

He just stood there looking at me with laughter in his eyes, which was worse than if he had said anything.

“… just one…” I finally muttered, defeated. “But that’s not the reason!!”

“Emma,” said Hoseok, putting a hand on my arm, “We don’t care your mess. But, you don’t want us go, it’s ok, we don’t go. Let’s go another place.” he smiled sweetly.

I looked at Rapmon, who shrugged, and V who was sulking, muttering something in Korean that had the word “noona” in it and suddenly felt guilty.

“Well, if you guys really don’t mind…” I started but couldn’t really finish my sentence because V tackled me, shouting “YES!!”

We bought some wine at a nearby shop, as well as snacks (how they still had any room left was beyond me…) and walked the short distance to my house, chatting. When we got there, I bade them wait outside for 5 minutes cuz I had to at least make the bed if we were all gonna sit on it. I cleaned up hastily as best as I could, and thanked heavens that I’d decided to clear the pile of dishes that tends to rest in my sink for days the day before, so the place looked at least somewhat presentable. When I was done, I opened the door to let them in.

“Damn, you got a lot of shoes!” was the first thing out of their mouths. Of course.

V trotted in first, doing a little lap around the room, like a puppy exploring unknown surroundings, and finally jumped on the bed with a satisfied smile. Hoseok walked in and just stood politely in the middle of the room, waiting to be assigned a seat. He went “oh!” as he noticed the poster and gave me a little wink. Rapmon was the last to enter and he looked around slowly, declaring, after peaking at my multiple bookshelves and overstuffed clothes racks, that my place had “character”. I laughed.

Rapmon and Hoseok sat on the floor, and V stayed on the bed while I got out some glasses so that we could all drink. I only had two wine glasses so two of us ended up with plastic cups instead. We toasted, and drank, and chatted. As the night went on, we all moved to the bed since it was more comfy, and we all sat in a “line” against the wall, with Hoseok on the far left, Rapmon, me, and then V at the end. We were pretty tipsy, but it was fun, just talking casually, and somehow reminded me of high school or college days, when you’d just chill at your friends’ house cuz you were too poor to go anywhere else.

At one point, V just grabbed on to me and put his head on my lap, going “Noona is really the best!!” and I laughed and petted his hair.

Hobi whispered something to Rapmon, who translated “Don’t you mind?”

“What?” I asked, and he pointed to V who was still snuggling away, mumbling about how I smelled good.

Ok, maybe it was a little disturbing if you stopped to think about it, but I was drunk and I didn’t.

“Isn’t he always like this though?” I asked.

“Well, yeah, with us.” started Rapmon.

“and dog,” interjected Hobi.

“But we’ve never seen him act like this with strangers before.” finished the blonde boy.

“I guess I’m not a stranger then” I said with a proud grin.

They nodded, and I didn’t really realize that they weren’t completely satisfied with that answer. Eventually, V fell asleep and then we all realized that it was 2am and they should probably head back. We said our goodbyes and they carried a sleepy V out the door, who was still muttering about how he wanted to stay with noona. I thanked the guys for an awesome night, and that was it.