Chapter 8 – Come See Me

He suddenly started mailing me again around the end of July. To be honest, I was starting to worry, but hadn’t wanted to let it show. When we had first started talking, he would go days between messages and it seemed fine, but since we had gotten closer, barely a day would pass without a call or mail from him, so yeah, it had hurt my feelings a little. I wondered why that was. But then he came back, acting like nothing out of the ordinary had happened and I was a bit puzzled. I worried a little that I had done something to throw him off. Maybe all the confusion in NYC had been on my end. Maybe he’d realized that I was starting to see him less like a child and more like a man and he didn’t like it. I’d spent quite a few nights up in bed, thinking about it; debating possible excuses, but in the end, none of it mattered, because he was back, same as he’d always been. And I was glad.

Mostly, he was as cheerful and random as usual, but there was one point that he brought up one day, and then was adamant about for days before I finally gave in.

“Noona, come to Korea when you go back. Before you go back to Japan.” he asked me out of the blue.

Actually “asked” is just a nice way of putting it since “ordered” would be more accurate. I told him he was crazy since it was so complicated to change my tickets, and I would have two suitcases with me and it would be such a huge hassle, but he wouldn’t be deterred. He said he would pay for everything: my flight, my hotel, even the price of having to bring an extra suitcase on the plane back to Japan from Korea (you were only allowed one on flights from Korea). The whole idea was nuts, and I told him so. I didn’t want him to pay for all that.

In the end, we came to a compromise: I would fly back to Japan, as planned, but I’d just take my things home and fly right out to Korea the next day, and he could pay for that. It seemed to suit him, so he agreed. To be honest, I didn’t understand why he couldn’t just wait til the Japanese fanmeetings, which were scheduled to happen less than a week later, but he said he wanted to show me his place, and had something important to tell me. He wouldn’t tell me what it was and I was a little worried on that point. But I went anyways.

*

There was a guy waiting to pick me up at the airport when I showed up. He didn’t speak any English, but he was holding a board with my name on it, so I followed him. He handed me an envelope that contained a note from Taehyung and some printed hotel receipts that I would need to check in, and drove me to a hotel in Apujeong.

It was a nice hotel, though not as good as the one we’d stayed at in New York. My room was on the 7th floor and I had a pretty nice view of the city from my window. I’d mailed Tae as soon as I’d gotten the internet to work, but I guess he was busy with work because I didn’t get a reply for the longest time.

I decided to take a shower as I waited. But even afterwards, there was still no message from V, which was weird. I started unpacking my things to distract myself from the nagging feeling that I couldn’t shake.

I should’ve known that he would just drop-in unannounced, bounding on me like a hyperactive puppy. Which is exactly what he did while I was in the middle of unpacking.

“Oh! Noona! No make up!” he said to me in surprise, pulling back from the tackle-hug, as I made a displeased face at him, and then he grinned from ear-to-ear, adding, “Pretty!”

“So what’s the big deal then? What’s the big secret that couldn’t wait til you guys got to Japan?” I asked, though my annoyance was somewhat muted since I actually was really happy to see him.

He shook his head and said “Not now.”

I rolled my eyes at him and he grabbed my arm, lifting me up and saying, “Let’s go my house now.”

“Now?!” I repeated, and he nodded.

I argued with him that there was no way no-makeup-noona was going over to meet the rest of Bangtan with a bare face, and he reluctantly ended up watching TV as he waited for me to get ready. When I was finally good to go, I grabbed a little paper gift bag from my suitcase and went to meet him.

“What’s that?” he asked and I said it was omiyage… only belatedly remembering that the English word was “souvenir”. This is what happens when you’ve lived in Japan too long.

We left the hotel and walked across the street to his dorm. It was literally, right across the street. I saying he must’ve wanted to keep an eye on me and he nodded seriously.

Their dorm was a nice, rather large apartment. They had 3 bedrooms, plus one that was being used as a studio. Two bathrooms, a laundry room, a living room, dining room, and a big kitchen. It was quite an upgrade from the shabby old dorm where they used to live that I’d seen pictures of on the internet.

He showed me his room, which he shared with Jimin and J-Hope and it was kinda fun to see his private little space. He had a little dresser full of pictures of his family and his dogs, and on his desk there was a computer and piles of movies and mangas in no particular order. J-Hope walked in while he was showing me around and seemed surprised to see me, but greeted me warmly, asking me if I’d had a nice trip.

We left the room, to let him have his privacy, and headed into the living room, sitting on the couch and talking as he showed me pictures from America on his phone. Jin arrived a short time later and came over to chat. Because seeing Jin somehow reminded me of food, I suddenly remembered the present that I’d brought for them and handed it to him.

He took the bag with a puzzled look, obviously wondering why it was so heavy, and quickly opened it. But even when he got it out, he just stared at it, then me, in confusion, so I had to explain. It was a big metal can of maple syrup, which my part of Canada is famous for. As soon as I said that, he got really excited. V did too and immediately suggested we should make pancakes.

“But… no pancake mix…” said Jin, and V made a disappointed face.

“Well… if you have flour and milk, I can make crepes.” I suggested.

“You know how to make crepes?!” V turned to me, astonished.

“Yeah, it’s easy!” I laughed as he stared at me in awe.

We all trouped into the kitchen and I googled a recipe (I’d half-lied, I’d made crepes a handful of times before, but I could never remember the recipe properly) while they went to see if they had all the ingredients. I asked if they had some fruits too, cuz crepes are nice with fruit, but they didn’t have anything fresh so Jin ordered Tae to go buy some. Kookie was just getting home as he headed out, so he was dragged along to the store with him, before he could argue about anything.

We started cooking after they left. Trying the first one even before they got back and opening the can. Jin approved. The boys were back within 20 minutes, arms laden with bags full of strawberries, bananas, apples and kiwis, and started unloading everything while Jin and I added to the growing pile of crepes on the counter. I was guessing that it was going to take a lot to feed this small army.

J-Hope soon came out of hiding, attracted by the smell, and I set him to start cutting up bananas. He looked at me kinda funny but then just shrugged and did it. Kookie was already working on washing the strawberries, and Tae was trying to peel the apples, but doing such a crap job of it that I had to take the knife away from him and do it myself. Bored, he then drifted over to Jungkook’s side and started eating all the strawberries as they chatted, so we had to shoo him out of the kitchen entirely.

Jin sent him on a mission to call the office and ask Rapmon and Suga to come home, since they wouldn’t want to miss this feast. And less than 30 minutes later, we were all gathered at the dining room table, the fruit of our labor making a beautiful picture at the center of the table, and we all dug in.

It was a huge success and everyone marveled at how amazingly sweet the syrup was. Actually, it’s very difficult to get “real” maple syrup in most places in Asia, and when you do find some, it’s usually over 15$ for a tiny little bottle… so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was their first time trying it.

We had a really nice time, and around 10pm I started crashing, my jet-lag finally catching up with me, so V said he’d take me home. I said goodbye to everyone, and they all gave me a hug, which left me kinda giddy, and we trekked back across the street.