Gongchan’s POV

The guys are all passed out now all over the place and I can see Jinyoung being a little flirty with Suzy over in the corner. Will he please just ask her out already?

Mia taps my arm and I look at her. She points to her room and I get up and follow her. No one even notices when we leave.

“Can you explain to me now?” she asks. “Why am I supposed to avoid that woman?”

I guess it’s better to tell her now. Mia sits down on her bed and I sit down next to her. “You see,” I begin, “remember that time when you went to the amusement park with us and everyone began crowding around us and noticed us?”

“Yeah,” she says nodding her head.

“And then you lost your phone, right?”

“Right.”

“That woman, she’s the one you knocked into.”

“Ah,” Mia says snacking her hands together. “That’s why she looked so familiar, but how do you know who the woman is?”

“Well, since your phone was lost, that woman kept calling me and texting me. I ignored them and they eventually came so much of a problem that I got a new phone. Turns out yesterday she recognized me,” I explain. “So I want you to stay away from her, okay?

“But what if she comes here again?” Mia asks worriedly.

“I’m going to tell noona to watch over you and if she ever comes, don’t be afraid to contact me. I’m going to protect you, alright?”

“Okay,” she says nodding her head cutely. “Thank you, oppa,” she says wrapping her arms around me.

“For what?” I ask slightly surprised by the action.

“Thank you for watching over me all of the time.”

“Hey, I’m always going to protect you. I’m your oppa and you’re my favorite dongsaeng,” I say slinging my arm around her shoulder.

I still feel regretful about not being able to have a normal relationship with her. I wish to take her out to eat and just do what normal couples do, but because of me being an idol, I’m unable to do any of that stuff. I want to be able to do all of that stuff with her; I want to be able to do the things that normal people do. I want to be a normal person sometimes.

But this is the life I chose. The life I chose is the one where there are fans everywhere and there is always the chance of creating a scandal. That is the life I live. Sometimes, I want to escape it all. I want to give Mia what she deserves, but I can’t.

I hug Mia tightly and feel her struggling underneath. “Oppa, what are you doing?” she asks.

“Shh,” I say. “Let me just stay like this for a couple of minutes, okay? I…I want to hold you.”

Mia stops wiggling underneath of me and I can feel her arms lightly connect behind my back. I close my eyes and take in the feeling of my heart racing just at this mere touch. I’ve never gotten to really properly told Mia in a while. It’s been too long.

 

Mia’s POV

I like being in Gongchan’s embrace. It’s warm and it’s been a while. I’m glad that he’s on a break, although there is always the chance of him getting called off to do an interview or a sudden broadcasting, I know that. I guess it comes with dating an idol. There’s also all of the holiday shows and the end of the year stuff that he has to prepare for too.

“I don’t want this moment to end,” Gongchan whispers. “I want to tell everyone, I really do.”

“I understand,” I say.

Gongchan pulls away from the hug. “You know that it’s alright to tell me if you’re having a problem with it.” I don’t say anything and just look at him. “You always say that you understand. You don’t have to understand anymore. You can be mad at me; you can express your frustration. I know that it’s hard being in a relationship with me. It’s okay to say so.”

I look at Gongchan. “Oppa,” I say looking at him in his eyes. I see a sincere and honest look in his eyes.

“It’s frustrating, right?” he asks with a smile. Slowly, I nod my head. “I knew it,” he says grasping me in his hug once again. “Why must you hide it from me?”

“I don’t want you to have an even harder time because of me,” I whisper.

“Harder time? Mia, are you crazy?” he asks. “I’m the one causing you the hard time and you’re taking it all on yourself? You’re crazy,” he says poking my forehead.

I laugh at him. “I like spending time together like this.”

“And l like spending time with you,” he says smiling.

We stay like that for a little bit. “Oh, hey I remember that I asked Suzy if she liked Jinyoung-oppa.”

“Really?” Gongchan asks excitedly. “What did she say?”

“The obvious answer that everyone already knows.”

“No?” he asks jokingly.

“Hey,” I say poking him, but he starts laughing. “So, what are we going to do?”

Gongchan shrugs his shoulders like an innocent little child. “I guess we’re just going to help Jinyoung ask her out.”

“This sounds like fun,” I say clapping my hands together. “I never got to do this before.”

“You never did this in America?” he curiously asks.

“Not really,” I admit. “I mean, I was never actually helping someone else confess.”

Gongchan smiles at me. “This is really going to be fun.”

 

Gongchan’s POV

After a while, it’s time for us to leave, but not before I told noona to watch out if some woman is seen around here a lot that is unfamiliar. It’s not that I want to necessarily worry them; I just want them to know what may be coming in the future. I want to protect them. She is our noona and Mia is my girlfriend.

“That was fun,” Sandeul says as we make our way back to the dorm.

“Yeah,” I say. “It looked like Jinyoung-hyung and Suzy were having a good time with each other.” I see Jinyoung slightly blush and everyone else chuckle a bit. “Oh, hyung,” I say remembering what Mia told me earlier. “Suzy says that she likes you.”

“What?” everyone asks causing some heads to turn and us to shield ourselves since we’re walking out in public.

“Yeah,” I say nodding my head nonchalantly. “Mia asked her and she said that she likes you, why? It’s not a crime to like someone.”

“Are you going to ask her out?” Sandeul quickly asks.

“You like her too,” Shinwoo chimes in.

Suddenly, everyone starts asking Jinyoung questions and I just laugh at the sight. People we’re passing probably think that we’re just crazy teenagers and it’s glad to know that no one recognizes us for now. It is cold and people aren’t going to be out that often when it’s dark and cold.

“Hey, we should have a Christmas party,” Sandeul says.

“Christmas party?” I ask looking at him. “You’re thinking about having a Christmas party?”

“Why not?” Sandeul says. “It’ll be Mia’s first Christmas in Korea. We should all have a party after our performances, that night.”

At least, it doesn’t sound like that bad of an idea. I shrug my shoulders. “I was actually thinking of planning an event for Mia.”

“A surprise event?” Baro asks. I nod my head.

“I like surprises,” Sandeul says clasping his hands together as he has a bright expression on his face.

Finally, we make our way back to the dorm to find that Manager-hyung is already back. “Where were you guys?” he curiously asks.

“We were just out,” we say.

“We were spending time with Mia and Suzy, why?” Jinyoung asks stepping up as leader.

“Just wondering,” he says as he gets up. “Gongchan, I hear that you got yourself a girlfriend.”

I freeze and look at the other members. This situation can either go two ways. One, he could be totally overjoyed or two, he could completely hate the idea. It took him a while to figure it out, though.

“Um, yeah,” I say nodding my head. Denying it would only make it worse. “I’m dating Mia.”

I look at his face to attempt to get some form of something. At least some form of emotion, but like always, he just sits there and stares at me. He’s probably thinking about how to address the situation, but as far as I know, there really is no situation. Mia and I have been going out for a couple of months now and nothing has happened to us yet. I don’t expect anything to happen between us. If only that pesky woman left me alone.

Finally, Manager-hyung just sighs and looks at me. “Keep it secret. I don’t want any scandals breaking out.”

“Of course,” I say. “Thank you.” I immediately bow.

“No problem,” he says with a slight smirk. “I just don’t want to cause Mia any trouble. She’s been through a lot, you know.”

I stare at him. How does he know that she’s been through a lot? Is it regarding her past in America? Well of course he would probably know since he’s close to noona. Noona probably told him everything; she’s probably the one that told him about us dating.

I don’t have a problem with people knowing. I’m happier when they do know because then they know that Mia is mine and to stay away from her. I just wish that everyone could know without someone making a big deal about it.

“Well, I’m going to leave. You guys have practice tomorrow,” he says as he heads towards the door.

“Yeah,” we say in unison as he closes the door.

“Ugh, practice,” Sandeul says as he lies on the floor spreading his arms and legs everywhere.

“Practice might be fun,” Shinwoo says. “We have some important performances coming up.”

“But still, practice,” Sandeul says. He acts as if saying that word is taboo itself.

Looks like I won’t be able to hang out with Mia tomorrow. It’s not even like we made plans to actually hang out, but I forgot that I actually had practice when I was with her. Maybe Mia could come by to watch the practice? She’s never really seen us practice before; she’s never been to the company either. This could be a whole new learning experience.

“Hyungs, I’ll be back,” I announce to them as I go into the bedroom that I share with everyone but Sandeul. He has his own room since he hugs people too tightly in his sleep.

“Oppa,” Mia says picking up the phone. “Are you home safely?”

“Perfectly fine,” I say with a smile on my face even though she wouldn’t be able to see it. “So, I have practice tomorrow.”

“That’s alright,” she says. “You have some end of the year things to do. Even though you have a break, it’s not really a break since you have so much work to still do.”

“Yeah,” I say lightly chuckling. “But I was wondering if you’d want to come watch the practice tomorrow.”

“Watch the practice?”

“Yeah, just come with noona. I’m sure that she’ll be able to get you in the company. You’ll be able to see where I work. Think of it like visiting your boyfriend at his job.”

“Well…I don’t know,” she hesitantly says. Looks like convincing her to come isn’t going to be easy. “What if people see me?”

“You’ll be with noona,” I reassure her. “If you’re with noona, then you’ll be fine. Fans know that she work for us. They could think that you’re a new intern or something.” I hear her sigh on the other line. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” I quickly say. “Don’t think that I’m forcing you into anything. Well, goodnight, dongsaeng,” I say wanting to end the phone call quickly.

“Goodnight oppa,” Mia says before I hang up the phone. Does she not want to come to the practice room that badly?

 

Mia’s POV

I wake up the next morning earlier than I thought. I still didn’t decide on whether or not I wanted to go to the company and see their practice. As much as I think that that would be completely awesome and totally cool, I can’t help but wonder about their fans. Sometimes I’m at their performances or events and I’m always with my sister, but would the fans be curious as to who I am? Would they try to search me on the internet to see if they knew any information or do they simply think that I work alongside of B1A4?

“You’re up early,” unni says coming into the room.

“Why are you coming into my room?” I ask puzzled.

“Just to see if you were awake. I do this every morning before I leave.”

“Oh,” I say looking down at my blankets.

“Is something troubling you?” she asks opening the door more and sitting down next to me on my bed.

“I guess you could say,” I admit.

“What is it? Your sister is here.”

“Do you think going to the company is a good thing?”

“Going to the company? About what? Your relationship with Gongchan?” unni asks.

“No, no,” I quickly deny. “He wants me to see his dance practice today at the company. Are there normally fans around there?”

“Not that often,” unni says thinking. “I don’t think there are many fans that stop by. There are more that go to their events and performances. You’ve been to those things a bunch and no one’s ever said anything to you. Do you think they’ll say something to you?”

“Kind of?” I ask looking at her. “I just don’t want people to know who I am.”

“I understand,” she says putting her hand on my back. “If you want to go, I can wait.”

I debate in my head again whether or not I want to go. It sounds like a fun experience. “I’ll be ready in ten,” I say jumping out of my bed.

Arriving at the company, it just looks like a simple building. It’s really nothing too fancy or anything and like unni said, there aren’t any fans around. Slowly, I get out and walk into the building with her as she gets me a pass. “Just for safety precautions,” she says as she slips it over my head.

“Yeah,” I say fixing my hair.

It’s not that I decided to dress up particularly cute, but the pass is like an ID. It’d be strange if the string were on top of your hair and not touching your neck. Since I was only going to be visiting Gongchan while he was sweaty, I decided to get dressed in casual clothing. Nothing too fancy was needed and I don’t always feel the urge to dress up cutely.

“Right here,” unni says as she points to a door.

“Thanks,” I say smiling.

“Now I’m going to be in a different room helping to choose clothes for their performances. If you need me, just ask Gongchan or any one of the other members. They should know where I am.”

“Okay,” I say nodding my head as I watch her disappear.

I put my ear up to the door as I can hear music inside and the squeaking of sneakers. I can hear some people count off too. They must be practicing.

Slowly, I open the door and inch my way inside hoping not to be seen. I want to make it a surprise that I’m here. I walk in and see the members facing a camera; they must be recording themselves so they’ll be able to observe it later.

Thankfully their attention isn’t on me and it’s on the camera that’s in front of them as well as the mirror to watch themselves as they dance. They’re rehearsing to ‘OK.’

Sneaking around, I find a chair that’s slightly in the corner and sit on it while I watch them sing and dance. It’s the first time that I’ve really seen them up close, well at least practicing and not during a performance. The other times that I’ve seen them was during their actual performances in front of other fans. Seeing them like this in their practice room gives a completely different vibe.

As soon as one song ends, they jump right into another one. They must be practicing for when they have to go right from song to song. It has to tiring, being an idol. I don’t think I would want this lifestyle. Always having to practice and going on schedules and barely ever having a break or time off. Those things and the fact that my private life would probably never be private make being an idol unappealing to me. I actually respect the members even more after learning more about their lifestyle. For some strange reason, stars in America don’t even seem like they put in this much work.

It’s nothing about them, it just seems like the entertainers here never get a break while stars in America seem like they just buy houses and do whatever they want. It’s like seeing stars and idols on television or in concert compared to in person. The vibe is completely different and I guess it would be in a different country.

While their practice continues, I can’t help but think back to my life in America. I like it over here; I’m used to the lifestyle now. I don’t think I could ever go back to America to see my parents, it’s not even like they would want to see me in the first place. I sigh as I place my hands in my palms as I watch them energetically dance like it’s a real performance.

I guess this is what adult life feels like, being in college and separated from your parents, but without the homesickness. I guess I wish I could say that I miss my parents and that I want to go back home to America to see them, but I’d rather do anything but.

 

Gongchan’s POV

Finally we’re done dancing, for now. It’s tiring. And we filmed the whole thing so that we would be able to look at ourselves and correct our mistakes, mostly Sandeul who sometimes gets turns wrong and his timing is off. For being a great singer, he makes a lot of rhythm mistakes in his dancing.

As soon as we get into our final poses, we hear clapping behind us.

“What?” I ask turning around to find Mia sitting on a chair. “Mia? I thought you weren’t coming,” I say going up to her.

“I never officially said whether I was coming or not,” she says with a smile.

“Are you thirsty or hungry or anything? Why didn’t you say anything when you came in?” I wonder.

“I didn’t want to disturb you guys, you looked like you were intently into rehersing.”

“Well thanks?” I ask questioningly.

“Hey Mia,” the guys say coming up to greet her.

“Hello,” she says energetically greeting them all back. “You all looked so cool out there.”

“Thank you,” we say.

“We’re going to watch the video now; do you want to watch it with us?” Jinyoung asks.

“Sure,” Mia says.

Jinyoung brings out his laptop and we all crowd around it on the floor. We’re all lying on our stomachs too as we point out mistakes.

“Sandeul-hyung, you have to be funnier,” I say pointing to him during the opening sequence.

“How should I be funnier?” he asks.

“Make up your own charms?” I ask shrugging my shoulders. “Just look at Jinyoung-hyung, he’s funny.”

“If you mean funny in an awkward way,” Baro says. We all break out into laughter, even Mia laughs along with us. It’s like she’s the unofficial sixth member of the group she’s with us so much.

“What is this for?” Mia asks. “Obviously it’s for one of the programs you have to do, but which one? Like a music show or an awards show,” she says as she starts naming off stuff.

“This is for an awards show,” Shinwoo explains. “The music program show we’re going to rehearse for next, it’s going to be Christmas songs.”

“Let’s get back to practicing boys,” Jinyoung says pushing himself up off of the floor. We all do the same.

“Are you going to be okay?” I ask looking at Mia. She nods her head.

“I’m just going to be sitting where I was, do a good job,” she says giving me the fighting sign.

We practice by singing the Christmas songs that we’re supposed to sing on the music show. We make sure that our dances and actions have a lot of things that would make the fans happy because we would never want to disappoint them.

Unknowingly, hours have already passed and it’s time for lunch. “Mia, come out and eat lunch with us,” Sandeul says going over to her.

“Would it be alright?” she asks. “I mean, you still have your fans.”

“It’ll be alright, there are no fans around here and we’re only going to a place that’s nearby,” Jinyoung clarifies. I guess we all know how she feels about the fans. Slowly, Mia nods her head yes and we all cheer.

“Let’s go,” I say quickly putting my arm around her after I throw on my jacket. The six of us walk outside like that when there are suddenly a lot of people outside. Why are there people outside? Normally there’s never anyone outside of the building.

“Gongchan, Gongchan,” they say coming over to the group. They start crowding around us and I immediately drop my arm from Mia’s shoulder. “Is it true that you have a girlfriend?” they ask. My eyes immediately go wide and I catch a glimpse at Mia out of the corner of my eye. “Is this your girlfriend?” they ask turning their attention to Mia. What’s going on?

 

Mia,

I never meant for anyone to know about you or to even suspect that I have a girlfriend. I have no idea how they even know or even could figure out when we’ve always been so careful not to let anyone know. Who knows, what will happen because of this, but I will still protect you, always. The members and Manager-hyung and noona will help protect you, too. I just hope this doesn’t blow out of proportion.

 

Your worried boyfriend,

Gong Chanshik

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Why are there there reporters asking about Gongchan's girlfriend? How did they get the lead on it? What was Mia's life in America before coming to Korea? Will the Christmas party happen?

 

Here is Chapter 16. Hope you enjoyed :D