Lilly

 My alarm rang out sharply in my room, violently waking me up from an extremely weird dream with flying giraffes and camera snapshots flying around of all things. I rubbed my eyes hesitantly and grabbed my phone from my side table. Eight a.m. showed on the clock and below it waited a few notifications for apps and games. A few messages were there too, mostly from my co-worker but one that stood out was Youngjae's.

My face lit up as I his texts and my eyes opened wide.

It's only fair to offer an explanation. After Got7 left for Korea six months ago, and all events came and went, Youngjae, who had given me his phone number personally, and I kept decent conversations up with each other, mostly talking away nights over nights about games, and fictional characters and cosplays, and more games, and slowly, we got to know more about each other. I was now a full fledged fan of Got7 and Korean Pop Music in general, but there was this speciality in Got7 that made them my favorite. Anyway, as we got to know more and more about Youngjae over the constant, comfortable texts, I daresay I developed a small crush on him.

This fact is still extremely difficult for me to swallow.

When we went bowling and hung out, I tried my best to look composed and calm, completely without a care in the world, but inside, my emotions were all over the place. I was a mess. God forbid anyone finds out about this turn in events, for I will kill.  But I don't want that, since my job is very important to me. Nevertheless, Youngjae's texts always made me extremely happy, because crush or no crush, we had a similar interest, and we had a basically great time chatting away about it.

It also made me feel very happy that Youngjae never seemed sad or melancholic about talking to me or anything of the sort when he texted me or even replied. I never face-timed him or anything, but it seemed like his happiness radiated through the screen or something, every time.

The text this morning was certainly very interesting.

"Hey Lilly, Got7 has an off day today. JB asked me to ask you guys 'very graciously' and with 'extra politeness' whether you'd all like to hang out with us since last time was a week ago. I don't know why he'd ask such a thing, but it's seems cool since everyone's on board! So what do you say?"

I replied quickly,

"Don't worry, I'll ask the girls, let's see what they say. :)"

I got up and washed my face and all, then went to the living room where Eva was already cooking in the open kitchen to the side, preparing omelettes and pancakes. I walked up to her to tell her the news.

"Morning," she greeted me as I walked up to her. That surprised me as she hadn't turned around to look, and I was standing behind her.

I leaned on the counter, and asked suspiciously, "Good... morning. And how'd you even know it was me...?"

"Mother's instinct, child," she turned toward me and flipped the ladle in her hand upward, trying to be sauve.

"Right..." I laughed, "Anyway, Youngjae texted me today, said that JB said that they wanna hang out."

"JB does or the whole group does?" Eva was confused, "In any case, we met a week ago, I guess that's enough reason to go out again... and it's a Sunday... and we need to buy stuff for this broke- apartment..."

I interrupted her session of talking-with-self, "So it's a yes. Yay, I'll text Youngjae now. Where's Maria?"

Eva giggled at my to-the-point nature before replying, "Knocked out like a light."

"Got it." I knew what I had to do. She'd take the most time to get ready anyway, and she needed to get punctual in timings. I marched to her room, threw the door open, and began to tickle her.

She really was out like a light, seeing as her body didn't even budge when I tickled the everloving life out of her. So I began to throw random things at her until she actually opened her eyes and looked at me with the glare of a serial killer.

"Get up already, you idiot," I half scolded here, then added with a sly smirk, "Jackson said he wanted to meet you."

As expected, she bolted out of bed and looked around wildly, "How do you know? What?? Why? When did he..! Why did he even tell you?!"

I was bombarded with halfway insulting questions until I sighed, "Youngjae told me that the leader wanted hang out. So get your sleepy up and get ready."

"Already on it," Maria was literally out of the bed and was rummaging through her closet, and bolted to the bathroom before I was even done speaking.

"I swear to god, if this is what a crush actually is, then I don't wanna fall into it. Seems like a mess," I muttered to myself as I began making Maria's torn up bedsheets again.

Eva heard me, standing by the door frame, she asked me sneakily, "Crush on who now...?"

Goddamnit.

"No one, duh. What do you even think of me?" I laughed her accusation off easily, keeping composure. It surprised me how quickly the lie, "No one" came through my throat.

"Okay," she accepted... smirking. Caution, people, this girl is dangerous and will obliterate you if you don't keep safe and have tact.

"Oi! Give me my lotion it's on the stand!!" In this time, Maria screamed at us. I took the opportunity to push the lotion into Eva's hands and pushing her out of the door to deliver the lotion and to leave me alone already.

I quickly pushed the issue out of my mind and made Maria's bed hurriedly and went back in my room to change clothes.

When I came out in the living room again, Maria was sitting on the plain couch, watching tv and having breakfast. Her hair and makeup needed to be done, along with Eva's. I was exempted because truth be told, I never liked makeup and always loved the natural look.

I took a seat as well and soon we were all done with breakfast, and were getting ready to go to the mall at Jade Street. Apparently it was an approachable, vast variety mall with lots of facilities, and since we all needed to make our new apartment livable, at least, we decided to go there to buy new furniture, food and all other materials for everyday life. I don't even know how I had been getting by without any gaming consoles or anything, honestly. It seemed like forever since I played a quality game like Frisky Island, or the Darkened series.

While my two roommates got ready and prepared themselves for incredible thrift shopping, I actually sat and made a list of things we needed, like a normal human being.

Our apartment was extremely... dull, in a word. Of course, we had moved in like six months ago but since most of our time was spent tending to our finances, jobs and especially our studies, it became very difficult to find a break and try to make our living quarters suitable for human use.

We needed to decorate it. And we needed it to be done soon, or we'd all die from the lack of color if it kept up. That, and there was honestly no facilities here either. We needed more seats to sit on, at least, rather than this horrible, uncomfortable couch that I'm sitting on right now; we also needed food processors and utensils for the kitchen, stuff like a Wii gameset at least, for me. And just overall a basic kick to living a happier life here. So I wrote everything that came to mind down.

Soon, we were off to the mall. I told Got7 to meet us at the entrance, since they were helping us shop, and hanging out in general. On the way, I tried my utter best to explain to Maria and Eva about what and what they were supposed to buy, but no matter how much I said it, thrift shopping took higher priority in their minds.

Disregarding all that, we reached the mall and there they were, standing in a group to the side of the main entrance, wearing masks and sunglasses, among other things. We ran to greet them and having a basic uplift in mood like that, we decided to go inside and begin what could be called a journey.

Since the three of us were still in charge of buying separate things from different departments, we had a pick and choose of who we would like to take into our "team" for the shopping.

"I want the Foreigners; ain't nobody gonna talk back to me!" Maria announced quickly and swiftly. Knowing her stubborn as hell nature, no one tried to argue back. In any case, they seemed to enjoy her company a lot too, so there was no pressure.

"Hell yeah!!" Jackson and Bambam stating yelling happily, while Mark stood next to Maria, smiling silently, on board with the decision.

"I'd like to go with Lilly," Youngjae suddenly piped up, making me look at him, surprised.

"You would?" I asked him curiously.

He was happy when he replied, "Of course! Also, don't mind, but I have a hunch you're gonna go to the video game department too so I wanna tag along."

"Well, you're right!" I laughed.

Youngjae made another suggestion, "How about we take Yugyeom along too?  He knows a lot about shopping stuff and whatnot," he pulled Yugyeom to his side quickly.

I studied Yugyeom's I-don't-really-mind face, but still asked him for assurance, "you're okay with it, Yugyeom?"

"Sure, I'd like to tag along," he answered happily, making me relax, and announce, "Well then, it's settled for me too!"

"All that leaves is..." Eva began to speak, but stopped abruptly, "JB,  the leader... and Junior... right?" She passed a small glare to JB as she said that.

"Yep," JB came forward and put his hand gently on her shoulder, looking smug as usual, "Let's have a good time, shall we?"

Before Eva could strike back and visibly cause a scene, fighting JB with their not-so-fun sudden rivalry, Junior cut in, "I'll help you with whatever you have to carry, okay?"

"In any case, guys," Maria asked, "Shall we meet back here in a bit?"

"Yeah," Eva replied quickly, "Let's make it two hours, shall we?"

"Done!" Bambam and Yugyeom shouted, after which we dispersed to handle the various issues. Eva went to the grocery section to get ingredients and utensils for the kitchen, while Maria went to the furniture section to buy sofas, seaters and tables, among other things, for the apartment.

I began to walk toward the electrical appliances section, Youngjae and Yugyeom tagging along with me, to buy all items like the food processor, a coffee maker, a blender for the kitchen, while for the living room, we needed gaming systems, especially like an Xbox, and a Wii.

Maybe I'll buy myself a PS Vita as well...?

Yugyeom interrupted my thoughts by asking, "So what are we out here to buy, anyway?"

"Well, for one thing we need electric stuff for our kitchen, like a food processor and a blender... and for the living room and TV we need some extension wires and an Xbox, per say... also a DVD player," I answered off my fingers.

Youngjae was looking at me, confused, making me ask him about it, "What is it?"

"You remember everything you have to buy..." he answered slowly, "while your two friends literally looked like they were ready to thrift shop anything and everything."

I giggled at that, "Its not like that, those two are just very spontaneous and action oriented, while I'm just comparatively more passive and need a plan of sorts."

"Makes sense," he smiled.

Soon we reached the department and began to look through the different  brands and prices for the things we needed. Now that I had briefed both Youngjae and Yugyeom on the appliances we needed, they were proving to be of great help by looking through the things with me very effectively.  Youngjae just quietly studied every tag and price, but Yugyeom made a  lot of noise by asking me to "Come look at this one!" Or "This is pricey, but works better!!"

Finally, we settled on a multi purpose food processor with a built in blender, and also bought a toaster and a good coffee machine. After that we went to look for a new Xbox and Wii system, along with a DVD player.  I noticed how Youngjae was humming as he looked through them, and I also began to do the same, in effect, making him look at me and laugh loudly, since we were both so happy to be looking through these game consoles. Yugyeom was more into looking through the games they had in store though, and Youngjae quickly found a DVD player and Xbox for me to buy. We skipped on the Wii console because it was too pricey and I had to buy some things for my room as well yet.

We purchased everything for the living room and finally headed down to our final spot, the furniture section where we honestly came back out happily after five minutes only, because the seats and tables they had were relatively cheap and extremely stylish, and with Yugyeom's help, we managed to purchase two one seater sofas, one small table, one study table, and rugs for the entire apartment (it was pretty small so we only had to buy a few).

"Woo! We're done! Great work, you guys!! Thanks so much!" I told them happily, turning around to high five both of them. They returned it eagerly.

"Youngjae-hyung, I'm hungry," Yugyeom suddenly told Youngjae, then they both looked at me, "Can we go have some ice cream?"

I smiled at them, glad that they asked, "Of course! It's the least I can do for you guys helping me out like this. But let's return to the meeting spot after we get it quickly though."

 

Eva.

     I was stuck with the two faced mom and dad of Got7 when we split into teams outside the mall, because, apparently, neither Maria nor Lily wanted them in their team. Our first stop was to buy cooking utensils which, due to Maria's awful house skills, we were short on. While looking at the utensils, I picked up a frying pan and lightly smacked the back of JB's head with it. He looked at me with an eyebrow raised and I smiled at him.

     "Sometimes you need frying pans to keep robbers out," I lamely shrugged. He chuckled, taking the pan from me and lightly hitting my  head with it.

     "Guys cut it out," Junior took the pan from JB and set it back down,  "the owner is looking at us." I shrugged and moved on.

     "You hit like a girl," JB whispered, passing me. I glared at the back of his head, crossing my arms in front of me. While browsing  through plates, I picked up a pile of five plates and put it on my head,  trying to balance them. JB and Junior quickly grabbed them from my head and placed them back before JB grabbed my hand and dragged me away.

     "What?" I looked at him confused. He discreetly nodded towards the owner who was glaring daggers at me. I smiled back innocently, waving at him.

    "Do you see the steam coming from his ears?" Junior whispered, "And are you like twelve?"

    "Let just get what we need and leave," JB whispered back.

     "Junior go get some white plates and cups, JB go get the large frying  pan and that red coloured stew pot. I'll go get the cake tin and knives and things," I commanded before we all split up. I grabbed everything I needed, resisting the urge to goof around with them and went back to the counter. Junior and JB already stood there, whispering something which ceased the moment I walked up to them.

     "You're great at talking to adults right?" Junior pushed me forward,  "Handle the owner." I looked back at them with pleading but Junior being an absolute savage, didn't budge. The owner rang us up while glaring at us. I gulped, smiling sweetly at him. He glared back at me before barking out the amount.

     "I'm sorry to sound rude sir," I began as I pulled out the money from  my purse, "But frowning and glaring at people can cause winkles." I quickly handed him the money as the boys grabbed the bags quickly before  the three of us rushed out of the shop.

    "What was that?" Junior chuckled, raising an eyebrow at me.

    "Helpful future advice," I shrugged, "Come on, let's carry on."

    *********************************************

     I was officially lost. Reading Korean wasn't my strong point and now I get why splitting up in horror movies never ends well. I had no clue where I was and no way to contact the boys and tell them the pathetic truth. At least I had found the aisle I was looking for.

    Grabbing the things I needed and putting them in my basket, I tried to recall where we were supposed to meet up.

    "Eva," someone said from behind me before a hand on my shoulder startled me.

     "Holy mother of--!" I yelled out in english, whipping around to find JB and Junior laughing their asses off. I glared at them, swinging the basket which hit JB, causing him to stumble and fall on Junior.

     "JJP!" I cheered, quickly whipping out my phone and taking a picture of  them, "this is golden." JB and Junior's heads whipped in my direction, both wearing deadly glares. As they got to their feet, I quickly sent the picture to Maria and Lilly.

    "Eva...delete the picture," JB demanded, crossing his arm. I grinned and struck my tongue out at him.

    "Eva, please?" Junior asked gently. I shrugged before nodding and deleting the picture.

     "Because he asked nicely," I pointed, turning around not before I saw a mix of surprise and anger on JB's face. The three of us were silent from that moment until my phone rang. I took it out to see a picture of a smug Mark who had cornered a scared Jackson. Giggling I showed the  picture to Junior and JB.

     "I think you're being cheated on," I laughed at the fake look of betrayal that crossed his face. JB rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

    "I thought you weren't our fan?" JB pointed out, causing me to grin and shake my head.

    "I'm not. Just did a little research," I shrugged, grabbing a few spices from the counters.

    "So you've heard our songs?" Junior asked. I nodded, looking confused.

    "Whose voice is your favourite?" he looked smug like I was going to take his name.

    "Vocals or rap?" I played along.

    "Vocals."

     "Well, Youngjae has an amazing voice and Mark told us that he had only seven months of training before debut," I fought the evil smile that was threatening to show up on my face, "But I also like Yugyeom's singing alot."

    "Huh," JB remarked, walking ahead of us. I looked at Junior who shrugged and shut up completely.

    ******************************************

     Our shopping was done so we decided to get some ice-cream. On our way we passed a pet shop and I begged the guys to let me see inside. The pets were allowed to roam freely around the shop so that the people coming to buy them could interact with them.

     All the animals looked so adorable just tottering about. I walked around with a huge grin on my face, my heart warming up as I looked at the adorable little creatures. I forgot I came here with JB and Junior as I got lost in the adorable faces of the pets. The store owner came up to us, naming each animal and telling us it's age and personality.

     Every animal looked up at us with huge and heart-melting eyes but only one of them had enough courage to totter around behind me, nudging it's head into my legs or rubbing up against it and then looking up at me with cute eyes.

    "Someone clearly likes you," JB smiled down at the dog. The owner laughed, scoping up the dog and holding him out to me.

     "This is a Shih-poo; a cross between a Shih Tzu and a Poodle. She's only 4 months old and never follows anyone around. She barely even shows interest in any customer who walks in," the owner explained as I took her from him.

     "You want to get her?" Junior asked as JB petted her head. She looked  up at me with those big, black eyes I found it hard to say no. I nodded, looking up at the owner.

     "Let me just call my friend," I told him as I put her down, "she and I agreed to buy a pet together." The owner nodded in understanding as I pulled out my phone and sent a picture of her to Maria with the caption: 'I'm adopting this little fur-ball!! Hurry up!!'

     "Eva clearly has a huge fan," JB nudged me as the little fur-ball sat near my feet, her head cocked to the side as she looked up at me. I let out a happy sigh, getting on my knees to pet her.

    "Don't worry. I'm going to get you!" I whispered, scratching the back of his head.

 

Maria

The  boys and I found a furniture store rather quickly, with the list of furniture specific demands thrown my way, it was gonna take some time.  Jackson had boldly grabbed one of my hands claiming it was only so I would not get lost. I just rolled my eyes, letting him pull me through the  mall nonetheless. Mark and BamBam were behind us, arms looped in. The white bed frame, dresser and bookshelf  Eva had demanded to go with the white and purple theme of her room.  Lily's room's furniture was also quickly decided with sending her a couple of pictures. After the orders were placed and addressed given, we found ourselves in the home decor section.

    "Maria. Look." BamBam held up one of those Got7 dolls' throw cushions.

"I'll buy them for you. All of them. Cause I know you won't." Jackson  grabbed the seven different cushions and threw them in the basket he was rolling. Mark slipped his arm my shoulder pointing at the different kinds of rugs displayed. I ended up picking a white rug for Eva too.  One with cute swirls for the living room.

 "So do you need like wall hanging and stuff? I saw some back there." Mark pointed and I turned around and mumbled "sure."

Suddenly, Mark looked annoyed.

    "Where are Jackson and BamBam?" Mark sighed massaging his temples.

    "We'll  check Toys R Us for them once we finish." I patted his shoulder reassuringly. He began pushing the cart down the aisle with different decorations.

    "Pretty mirror." I said holding up a rectangular shaped mirror with a fancy frame. Mark laughed before Jackson and BamBam appeared throwing arms full of stuffed toys in the cart. I looked at them, baffled.

    "What is all this stuff?" I asked, exasperated.

    "Stuffed toys." Jackson announced, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

    "Put them back. What do I need to do with so many stuffed toys?" Jackson picked up a brown  teddy bear and placed in front of his before pulling it a little down so I could see his face.

"Keep me please." He said in English before jutting out his lower lip in a pout. I sighed, taking it from him before telling him to put the rest back. BamBam also held one up and it was a Pikachu. I smiled, taking it from him too. They picked the rest up to put them away. I shook my head.

"Where did you find them? A mental asylum?" I asked Mark who just grinned at me. BamBam and Jackson quickly returned. I noticed the cart in Jackson's hand had a couple of cute wall hangings and chibi figures in it.

"Who are these for?" I asked.

"You of course silly. House warming gift." He said with a sweet smile ruffling up my hair.

He's so sweet, I thought sweetly.

Shut up, my brain replied, he's one of Mark's friend and now yours too. No more, no less.

We made our way to the check out counter once done and quickly paid; Jackson insisted carrying most of the stuff because I quote, these aren't just for showing off, before he kissed his biceps. I had hid my face at the person's baffled look before he scanned everything quickly. Mark ended up paying for the stuff Jackson bought because he forgot his wallet in the car and BamBam never bought his.

"We still have half an hour before the meet time. What do you wanna do?" I asked checking my phone while Jackson and BamBam lugged the purchases around.

"Well, I need a coat with the new shoes that I bought, and a sweater. I have plenty of jeans." BamBam rambled as he began leading us to a shop. Well, I guess a little shopping won't hurt. Between trying out the seventh coat and ninth sweater Jackson and Mark went to put the purchases in the car. I found my new shopping buddy in BamBam, I even managed to buy a complete outfit with accessories and shoes that matched perfectly. As we were making our way to the meet point my phone rang and Eva began rapidly talking about a cute puppy and how she wants it. We had talked about adopting a dog and Eva was a stubborn cookie who no one could beat.

"So, I have a dog." I said as she hung up the phone.

"Huh?" Mark asked.

"Apparently Eva wants to parent a dog and wants me to be her dad. Why am I the dad?"

"Are we going there? To see your baby?" BamBam asked in a high pitched sound, receiving a smack to the back of his head.

*****************************

When we reached the pet shop, BamBam let out a loud squeal, covering up Jackson's much less pitched one. The two ran inside the shop cooing at the adorable puppies and kittens.

"Where is the little one?" Jackson asked as soon as he saw Eva and Junior. Eva showed them the small poodle asleep in her arms. It was brown with curly fur and barely bigger than her hand.

"She's so cute." BamBam gently took the small dog.

"So what name did you think of?" I asked as she began pulling me to the counter where she had already filled up half of the paperwork.

"Miva. It's like Mi from MinHee and va from Eva. I just need your signature. I filled everything out."  She handed me the clipboard and sighed signing my name below hers. The person who I assumed had introduced Miva to Eva smiled brightly.

"Congratulations. You now officially own her. I'll just get her things together and you can take Miva home." My best friend grinned brightly looking at the small poodle Jackson and BamBam were cooing over.