Chapter 40 – Departure & Arrival

The weeks after that passed in a blur. The boys came back to Japan once, for the I Need U release event, but they were only one day in Osaka and one day in Tokyo and we didn’t even have time to see each other. On my end, I had to deal with telling my boss I was quitting a month early, packing up an apartment that held 4 years of memories and getting rid of most of it. I also had to come up with all the paperwork for my visa, and keep in touch with Mr. Baek – on top of my regular work hours – which was pretty exhausting. There were several moments where I wondered if I was actually crazy, and then others where I thought it was pretty cool, because boyfriend or not, it was a new adventure.

Before I even knew it, February rolled along, with preparation for final exams, and the end of my work life in Japan. I was so sad to leave my school, to be very honest, and I was happy to see that others were also sad to see me go. I told everyone the truth – that I was moving to Korea – except I made it sound like it was because I’d been offered a fantastic job, and I was looking for a new challenge; not because I wanted to be closer to my idol boyfriend. I did get a kick out of telling Allan though. At my goodbye party, he jokingly asked if I was still dating that Korean boy and if that was why I was moving there and I said yes, with the straightest face I could muster. He appeared a little bit dumbstruck but seemed genuinely happy for me in the end.

There were more goodbyes – with friends – some who were very unhappy to see me leave, but I said Korea wasn’t far, so I could always come visit, or they would come see me. And finally, I went to the housing company to drop off my key and it was time to go. It felt so weird, walking out of my tiny, empty apartment; and I couldn’t help but tear up when I left my homey little neighborhood behind, with all it’s cool cafes, funky little restaurants, and weird inhabitants. I told myself it wasn’t really goodbye, when I boarded the plane, but in truth. I knew it was.

*

Mr. Baek was nice enough to meet me at the airport and drive me to my new home. It was an apartment that came with the job, about a 20-minute walk from the school (or a 5 min bus ride away, if I was lazy) in Gangnam. Oddly enough, it reminded me of my place in Japan. The building was quite a bit bigger, but it was a big block of concrete that housed about 25 apartments on 5 floors. And it was old. Also, as opposed to most other buildings in the area, each room was accessed directly from the outside, and there was no elevator, just a big staircase at the end of the hall that went, rather steeply, all the way down. My room was on the 3^rd floor.

After gentlemanly offering to lug the biggest of my suitcases up the 6 flights of concrete stairs, he punched the code into the little keypad and opened the door. That was something that would never cease to amaze me, how most places in Korea didn’t use keys, but lockpads… but anyways. After, explaining to me how to reset it, he asked me to choose a new code as he looked away. I thought that was very kind, especially since it had just crossed my mind that my boss was not the first person I wanted on the list of people having access to my personal living space.

The apartment itself was bigger than the one I’d had in Japan. It had 2 small rooms, and had one actual kitchen, adjoined to the living room. It came sparsely furnished, with a bed, a couch and a little coffee table, a TV, a small fridge and a little grilling oven. The rest I’d have to get by myself. I thanked him profusely, and after telling me I was starting on Monday (it was a Wednesday, I believe), he let himself out and I was alone in my half-empty new home.

Once the door had closed behind him, I took a deep breath and looked around. I felt the same sort of emptiness that I’d had, standing that last time in my Japanese apartment, except this time it was paired with the giddy feeling of newness and the unknown.

I grabbed my phone from my jacket pocket and saw that I had 3 missed messages from Tae; well actually, two were upclose selcas of his sweaty face (at the gym? Studio?), and one was a series of little hearts so, I’m not sure if they could really be called “messages”, but they made me smile. I wanted to tell him that I’d arrived but, when in Rome… So I snapped a couple of pictures of the half empty apartment, and then a selca of myself, in front of my suitcases, flashing a peace sign and sent the whole thing to him. All back-to-back.

“Noona! You’re here!!!!”

The response came immediately and I could almost hear the glee in his voice, even though it was just a text message.

There was no follow up to that message, which left me slightly annoyed, but I knew how busy his schedule tended to get, so I eventually just gave up waiting for a reply and looked around, searching for something to do. I could unpack my suitcase… although I still didn’t have dressers…. But I had a closet, and a bathroom, and I guess some of those things could be put away… there WAS a bookshelf in the mini living room…. so I set off doing that. Or I meant to start doing that, but what actually ended up happening was me sitting on the couch and checking my Twitter for messages, turning the TV on for background noise, and still be sitting there an hour later when the door bleeped open, making me look up in frightened surprise since no one was supposed to know the new code that I’d just chosen for the door.

A tall lanky shape in black track pants, face mask and an oversize grey hoodie strolled in, kicking his shoes off and dropping a large plastic bag by the door while he strutted towards me. I want to say he ran, but he just kinda strutted, half-walking, half-running, with the goofiest grin on his face (even though it was hidden) and all of my fear vanished and was instantly replaced by amusement, and love, as he stopped right in front of me and looked down. From that position, he looked like a giant.

“Well,” he said, pausing to pull his mask down, “aren’t you gonna greet me?”

I looked up at him, eyes blinking, phone still open in my hand, mid-swipe on my Twitter feed. “How did you know the door code?” I asked, instead of answering him.

He laughed, his eyes crinkling to little slits as he tossed his hair back, turned around and let himself drop on the sofa, wrapping one of his long arms around me and pulling me closer. “I missed yooouuuuuuuuu…..” he said instead of replying, snuggling into my neck, which was not-at-all unpleasant and I sort of giggle-moaned in response, which only encouraged him to pull me closer. And then he mumbled into my hair, “Don’t pick your birthday for your door code. Anyone can find.” nibbling on my ear as he did so.

“Obviously…” I replied, meaning to sound sarcastic and unimpressed and only succeeding in sounding like I wanted him to jump my bones at that very instant.

We started kissing, and kissing, and kissing… just making out like teenagers, and things would have probably gone in another direction if my stomach hadn’t suddenly growled loudly as he tried to slip a hand under my shirt. He paused to stare, and burst out laughing, tearing himself away from me.

“Aaaahh, I’m sorry…” I apologized, slightly embarrassed.

Instead of… well, any other reaction I could think of, he jumped off the bed and trotted to the door, retrieving the plastic bag he’d come with, that I’d totally forgotten about until now, and jogged back to deposit it on the floor a little way in front of me, and sitting cross-legged in front of it.

“You are lucky you have such a good boyfriend like me.” he said, as only way of explanations, and I watched him pull out a giant bottle of coke, and two boxes of delivery chicken from the bag, onto the floor.

I wanted to say something snarky but he opened one of the boxes and it smelled so good, and my stomach growled again. He laughed, patting the empty space next to him and I obliged, sliding down the couch and quickly making my way over. For a moment we ate quickly and quietly, both really hungry – Tae only pausing to take enormous gulps of that large coke bottle.

“You know you drink way too much of that stuff?” I paused, mid-bite, to stare at him, slightly turned off, “At least get the diet kind?”

In response he just rotated his eyes towards me, giving me this scary look, and returned to chugging the brown liquid down. When he finally put the bottle away and wiped his mouth, I thought he’d have a sarcastic comeback for me, but instead, he looked down at the bottle, recapping it intently as he said, “You know, I’m so sad I got this nice room for us near the studio, and you don’t want it.” he sulked.

I was a little bit dumbstruck by the comment. Although it was true, and we hadn’t talked about it, the place he had gotten for me was probably nicer, bigger, full of nice fancy things that this one lacked. And it probably had a guard at the entrance to ward off creepy people from coming in, and an elevator. Still, it felt like such a huge deal accepting it from him, and when Mr. Baek had mentioned this apartment came with the job, I had just told Tae that it was part of the contract that I had to live here. Which wasn’t 100% true, but not exactly a lie either. It WAS in the contract. I just could’ve chosen a different place no problem.

“It was more convenient for my work…” I protested, weakly, knowing he saw right through me. “Anyways, aren’t you guys busy now? How did you get here so fast?” I asked, changing the subject.

“We’re recording.” he answered, chewing at the same time, “It’s long and boring, but there’s no real order, so when it’s not my turn…” he trailed off, shoving some potato fries into his mouth ungracefully and washing them down with copious amounts of soda, before letting out a huge burp. I made a disgusted face at him and he just laughed.

I guess we had finally reached that stage.  Soon he’d be farting in front of me. Joy.

“Well then,” he said, whipping his hands on some paper towels and carelessly tossing them away as a sign the he was done – with both the food and the conversation – he went on, as always, completely out of nowhere, “You should probably go shopping.”

“Huh?”

He threw a hand around the room in a grand gesture as if to demonstrate his point. I got it, but it’s not like I had any idea where to start. I had no clue where to go, no Korean skills, and not much money saved up to spend on furnishing a new place.

In the end, after a lot of arguing and debating, we ended up spending the afternoon on our tummies in front of my computer (the apartment thankfully came with wi-fi already installed), ordering things that I needed (and some that I didn’t…) online with his credit card. I did not want to be indebted to him that way from the get-go, but he would absolutely not have me refuse since I had “so impolitely refused his Christmas present,”…

“I didn’t refuse, Tae…” I started to argue, but then saw his eyes and changed my tactic, “Maybe after I’m more settled in and confident in my Korean…”

“Are you gonna take classes?” he asked, his interest piqued.

“Yeah, the Korean teacher at the hagwon will teach me for free, he said,” I answered dismissively.

“Oh really?” he nodded, as if that was a good thing, and then he stopped and frowned. “Wait, it’s a boy?”

I just stared at him, flatly.

“Is he young?” he asked, making a face that made me roll my eyes.

“Yes, all the staff is young, I told you.” I laughed at his displeased look, and he scooted closer to ask, refusing to let it go, “handsome?”

I pretended to think, “Hmm, I guess in a way…” I .

“More than me?” he persisted, now centimeters away from my face, very seriously.

It was hilarious that he could even seriously ask that question, being who he was, but he was actually 100% serious, and 100% jealous.

“Baby.” I told him, taking his face between my palms and staring straight into his eyes, “No one could ever be more handsome than you.” I assured him, as if it was a matter of fact.

Apparently, that was the right thing to say because he beamed his rectangular smile at me, and pounced so fast that I fell backwards and he had me trapped with both arms either side of me within seconds.

“Eheheh” he giggled, evilly and I rolled my eyes.

“We’ve been dating long enough now that these antics don’t even surprise me anymore.” I said, looking up at him, pretending to be unimpressed.

“No?” he said his eyes raising up to the ceiling, and then his smile disappearing as a thought just crossed his mind, “you don’t like?”

His puppy face was so cute and innocent, I had to press my lips together to repress my smile; and still, I failed.

“I like.” I replied, pulling him down on me by his shirt and showing him just how much I didn’t mind his puppy love attacks.