Chapter One

Maria

    "So what are our plans for tomorrow? Are we attending Michael's party?" Lilly asked. We were all lounging around in my house.

    "Please no," her friend Evangeline said, as expected. However, some persuasion from the two of us led to her giving in. I patted her shoulder and Lilly heaved a sigh of relief, "Thank God!" We all knew how much she hated parties. 

    "You two need to live a little," I said to the two bookworms, earning glares from both.

    "You know we don't like frat parties," Lilly said defensively. Suddenly, my phone rang but I ignored it, choosing instead to stuff my mouth with the packet of chips I just opened. Eva rolled her eyes and grabbed my phone. Once she saw the caller ID, she threw it in my lap.

    "It's Mark," she whispered with wide eyes.

    I frowned as I took another bite, "Mark who?"

    "How many Marks do you know?" she said exasperatedly.

    "There are two in my literature class--" I began but stopped once I realised how annoyed she was. 

    "You know which Mark I'm talking about." 

     I snickered.

    "I know. I just feel like ignoring him."

    "That's nice," Lilly muttered with little interest. 

    "That's rude," Eva chided.

    "I'm just taking revenge from when he ignored me when he moved to Korea."

     The phone rang again. Eva swiftly seized it, accepted the call and threw it to me. I had no choice but to put it up to my ear.

    "Hello?" I said, feigning boredom. Eva and Lilly were looking at me curiously.

    "Hi!" Mark's voice greeted me, "How've you been?'"

    "Been doing better."

    "Why?"

    "I don't know."

    "You love messing around with me, don't you?" Mark chuckled, as did I.

    "So why'd you call?"

    "The guys and I have our American tour."

    "And?"

    "So are you guys free anytime around then?"

    "Why?"

    "It's our second tour in America, and I want you guys to meet the band!" he exclaimed. I knew I irritated him.

    "Why so sudden?" I asked, confused.

    "Come on, Maria. We haven't met in forever." 

    "All right, I'll ask the girls." 

    "Let me know before tomorrow, yeah?"

    "Sure," I replied before hanging up. I was immediately bombarded by questions from the girls.

    "He's coming back to America and wants us to meet the rest of the members," I clarified, "He said he wanted to see me and just introduce us all." 

    Lilly voiced her approval, while Eva affirmed, "It'll be fun. We don't usually meet people like them anyway." 

    ..........

   "I swear to God, if you wear that I will kill you," I warned Lilly who was moving towards a lime green checkered coat. 

   She was about to protest but I took out a cherry pink peacoat and said, "Wear this, please."

   When we were all dressed up, we headed towards the door. Eva chose to drive as she was the eldest, much to my dismay.

   We reached the famous Japanese restaurant and saw the seven boys already seated. The redhead was chattering away in rapid Korea while the others were trying to get him to shut up. Mark was searching the restaurant for us. 

    "Hey! It's so good to see you all again" Mark stood up, engulfing us in individual hugs.

    "Same, blondie," I laughed, ruffling up his hair.

    The other boys were watching us closely.

    "Introduce us to your friends," I nudged Mark. 

    "Guys, these are my friends: Maria, Evangeline and Lilly. Girls, this is the band. JB, Junior, Jackson, Youngjae, Bambam and Yugyeom."

    "Hello!" we said, shifting into Korean.

    "It's nice to meet you," I added, smirking when Lilly whispered 'showoff' in my ear.

    The boys were evidently surprised that we knew Korean. When we sat down, Bambam was the first to ask us about it.

   "My father's Korean and wanted me to learn it," I explained.

   "So they learned from you," Bambam pointed at the other two, who smiled and shook their heads.

   "My eomma is Korean," Eva clarified. 

   "I just pursued my studies in Korean so I learnt the language," Lilly said. 

    "How's your experience here been so far?" Eva questioned.

    "It's been going well," JB replied, "We've had an overwhelming response from our fans. We've also been having a good time here."

    "How long have you known Mark?" Junior asked. 

    "I've known him since we were kids because our parents knew each other. These two became his friends in middle school. 

    "But you warmed up to Mark in freshman year," Eva said to Lilly patronisingly.  

    "Remember when she called Mark ugly?" I chimed in.

     We all burst into peals of laughter. 

    "Hey, I called the guy next to him ugly!" Lily declared, although she was turning red.

     Just then, the waiters arrived with our food. Eva mocked me for being so hungry although I had eaten three hours ago, while JB pleaded Jackson to eat with his mouth closed.

    "So tell us something about yourselves, noonas," Jackson said.

    "Noonas?" I asked incredulously. Eva and Lilly were giggling. Mark, who was busy laughing his off, shut up with a look from Eva. 

    "Sorry. The girls aren't older then you, Jackson. They're, like, 20," Mark said.

    "Don't worry, Jackson. We are used to this. Maria often used this trick to get out of speeding tickets and when she drove underage." Eva said.

    "It's Mark's fault," I shrugged, "He shouldn't have taught me how to drive."

    "You shouldn't have trashed your Dad's car," Mark countered.

    "It was her own car." Eva said.

    "Ah, no wonder she got off."

    "Anger isn't an issue when you're as cute as me," I said sweetly.

    "Guys, Jackson asked us a question," Lilly muttered. 

    Evangeline said, "So basically, I'm the socialite, Eva's the mom-friend and Lilly's the crazy gamer."

    "Gamer? you like to play games?" Youngjae spoke up, his eyes glinting. 

    "Yeah!" Lilly replied, and the both began animatedly conversing about games.

    "Are you guys staying till Christmas?" Eva asked.

    "It would be great if you were! We can show you all how to celebrate Christmas our way!" I bubbled.

    "Yeah, we are. I can't wait." 

    "Don't we have a showcase on Christmas eve?" Junior asked, looking at JB who nodded. 

    I frowned. Our Christmas celebrations together were always on Christmas Eve, and on the night of Christmas our families would gather to open presents together. 

    "That won't be much trouble," Mark waved a hand in my direction, "We can still celebrate Christmas Eve together -- you guys can come to the showcase! We'll talk to manager hyung."

    "We can worry about that later," Bambam said.

    "Tell us something embarrassing about Mark," Jackson asked. 

    "He was smart enough not to do anything stupid. Plus, he's always been shy and the teacher's pet."

    "We also had Eva parenting us in the absence of our actual parents." 

    "Let's not forget Lilly's innocent eyes that Eva knows how to convince adults to do what she wants," I added, "She once talked the principal into letting me off the hook after a huge prank I pulled." 

    "Hey, let's go get ice cream," Yugyeom suggested.

    "Are you paying?" Junior raised an eyebrow.

    "Oh, I forgot my wallet back in the hotel!" Yugyeom said, feigning innocence. 

    "Leader JB will pay!" Jackson shouted, clapping his hands. JB sighed. 

   "You don't have to," Evangeline reflected thoughtfully, "We'll treat you to ice cream, since you're our guests."

    Jackson and Yugyeom cheered. 

    "Let's go, man!" Youngjae suddenly shouted in broken English, causing the whole table to erupt in laughter.

    By the time we reached Suzy's, it was getting dark. Suzy was working at the counter and when she saw us, her face lit up. We had become friends with her as we often frequented her cafe.

   "Girls! It's been so long since you came here!" she hurried over to us, ignoring the counter, "I thought something happened."

   "Something did happen, Suzy," Eva said melodramatically.

   "What happened?" she was instantly worried.

   "High school!" I cried with a horrified face. 

    Suzy rolled her eyes.

   "Enough about us. Look who's here," Lilly motioned towards Mark.

   "Mark, did you dye your hair blonde? What is with you kids and dyed hair? Though, you look adorable."

   "Thank you. I'm glad that you're doing well." 

    Suzy returned to her position behind the counter and started preparing our orders, while we sat at our table. 

   "How does she know you guys?" Yugyeom asked curiously. 

   "We used to spend hours here, just eating or occasionally studying," Mark replied, "Once, a gang came into the cafe -- they were shouting and being rude and messing with Suzy -- and she chased them away with her words and her flour roller."

   "Really?" Jackson asked, laughing along with the rest. 

   "I think she could kill you just by feeding you too many pies," Lilly murmured.

   "There we go,"  Suzy came up with the ice creams, placed them on the table and left. Everyone dug in immediately.

   "This is great!" Bambam grinned. The others nodded in agreement.

    Soon we were done with the ice cream and were standing on the curb, just waiting for the other to say goodbye first, when Evangeline's phone began to ring. 

   "Eomma," she mouthed before she turned her back to us, talking rapidly on the phone. When the call ended she turned back to us, smiling softly.

   "We had fun today. Thank you," she bowed, "But we should be leaving now. I have to go pick up Grammy." 

   "Good to know our little idiot is in good hands," I added, bowing too, "Goodbye."

   "Bye," Lilly bowed as well. The three of us waved and turned around to walk away when JB called us to stop.

   "As Got7's leader, I would like to invite you all to the Christmas Eve showcase on behalf of the whole band," he extended three back-stage passes and tickets, "We had fun today and we'd like to become better friends."

   "Thank you so much, this is so kind of you," Evangeline bowed, ecstatic, "We would love to get to know all of you better too."

   "Till next time then?" Jackson stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jacket, grinning at us all. 

   "Until next time," I nodded, grining back.

   "I hope I can show you more of my games next time, Lilly," Youngjae added hopefully.

   "And I'd be even happier if I got to compete with you,"Lilly grinned. 

   "Bye!" we waved to them as their car went out of sight.