September 20 2005 – Joongie Oppa

I groaned as I heard my phone ring. I shook my head, trying to ignore it and immediately went back to sleep however, it kept on ringing. Aish! I slowly opened my eyes and looked at my alarm clock. It was 7 am. Who in the right mind would want to phone me at 7 in the morning?!

I finally grabbed my phone and pressed the answer button.

“Yobosaeyo?” I said, trying to hide my anger.

“I’m so sorry Jae!” I suddenly jumped from my bed as I heard a loud, familiar voice coming from the other line. “I’m so so so so so sorry! You hate me don’t you! Is that why you haven’t replied to 70 of my text messages! I’m sorry okay! I didn’t know what happened and what went through me--”

I ignored her pleads and looked through my phone to see if she was lying or not. When I saw it, there it was; ’78 unread messages’.

“Okay okay! Boa! Calm down!” I said with my husky morning voice. When she finally stopped screaming in my ear, I continued. “I forgive you. As long as you don’t do it again! Whenever you come up to me, it really scares me!”

There was silence for a few minutes before I heard Boa reply. “Okay…  I promise I will never do it again Jae.”

I nodded, as if Boa could see me. “Okay. Now what do you want?”

“Ummm,” I heard Boa’s voice and I rolled my eyes. I really wanted to go back to sleep but this girl is so annoying! I closed my eyes, falling half asleep as I waited for her reply. “I was wondering if you can help me… become human?”

“Yeah yeah whatever, can I just go back to sleep now?” I replied although I didn’t really hear what she said. I heard a loud squeal on the other line. It was so loud that I had to move the phone away from my ears.

“Kamsamnida Jae! Thanks! Thank you thank you thank you thank—” Before I could hear another thank you, I hanged up and fell back to sleep.

~~~

It was already 11am and I’ve finally finished getting ready for my part time job. The house was quiet as my parents went shopping so I was all alone in the house.

I was about to grab my phone and go to my work however, I suddenly heard the doorbell ringing. Aish! Who is this now? Probably Yoochun or something.

 I quickly grabbed my things and ran towards the door.

“Just a sec!” I shouted to the person behind the door and when I opened the door, I nearly jumped as I saw a girl with a wide smile plastered on her face.

“Hey Jae!” Boa said and I raised my eyebrows. Wait, Boa? What is she doing here, in my house?!

“What are you doing here?” I asked her and she grinned in reply. “And how did you know where I lived? Do zombies have some kind of powers to know where people lived or something?!”

“Of course not silly!” She replied hitting my arm jokingly. “Can’t you remember your promise this morning? So what are we going to do for lesson number 1, Mr Kim?”

I scratched my head in confusion. What is she talking about now? A promise? “Err… huh?”

“Yah!” She said loudly almost making me jump. Why is she shouting all of a sudden! “You said you were going to help me become human!”

“Ohhhh!” I said nodding, remembering the phone call earlier on. Oh god. Why did I agree to this?! I swear, no one should ask me for favours when I’m half asleep or I would end up agreeing to anything. “Boa, Can’t we do this another day? I have to go to work and I’m late!”

I looked at my watch and it was already 11:15 am. Arggh! I saw her shaking her head and I groaned. I didn’t feel like doing this right now.

“No Jaejoong! You promised,” I saw her pout and I know that whenever she does that face, I just can’t help but say no. “I can come to your work you know. I won’t cause any trouble. I can just sit on the corner and observe you.”

She gave me an innocent smile, hoping I would agree and I rolled my eyes. “Fine fine. Let’s go.”

“Yay!” She squealed in joy and I placed the back of my hands on my mouth, hiding a smile. Maybe bringing Boa for work isn’t that bad… is it?

~~~

We arrived at a small store in which I work in. It’s a small store which sells almost everything and I guess, from the look on Boa’s face, it was her first time visiting to a store like this.

“Wow!” I heard her speak in excitement. I saw how her eyes grew and was wide opened as she quickly looked around the place. “There are so many things in here!”

I then saw her run to the food aisle and I could only shake my head. Silly Boa. I then walked towards the tills and I saw Changmin reading one of his books.

“Hey Changmin!” I greeted him and I saw him placing his book down.

He gave me a short smile before he replied. “Hey hyung!”

Changmin is a guy I work with and although he’s only a few months older than me, he always calls me ‘Hyung’. But, I don’t really mind. It’s nice being called a Hyung. He’s also pretty smart. He loves to read a lot of books, especially the ‘Harry Potter’ series and you have no idea how many times he has told me what the book is about.

“So where’s our dear boss then?” I asked him and Changmin only replied with a shrug as he was too occupied with the book. Changmin doesn’t really talk much and I’m kind of used to it.

I’ve been working here for a couple of months now and although the pay isn’t that good, a job is still a job. I also need money so I wouldn’t have to depend on my parents for things all the time. It makes me feel like an independent young man, I guess.

My eyes searched for Boa and I saw her looking through the magazines section. She had an amused expression tattooed on her face and I couldn’t help but think at how adorable she looks. Her eyes travelled from left to right, examining the whole section. Even though I couldn’t hear her, I could tell that she was going, “Ooooh” or “Ahhhh!”

“Is that your girlfriend?” I heard Changmin ask me all of a sudden. I shook my head in reply, not taking my eyes out of Boa who’s happily strolling around the store. Whenever she meets one of the customers, she would always stop by, greeting them and then giving them a 90° bow. “Good. Can I woo her?”

“WHAT?!” I shouted in surprise the moment I heard those words coming from Changmin. I think I said it a little bit too loud that the customers around the shop all looked at me and I bowed down to them apologetically.

How can Changmin say something like this! I thought Changmin was my innocent dongsaeng who doesn’t care about girls!

“What do you mean ‘woo’ her?!”

I looked at Changmin and he had an evil smirk on his face, trying to suppress his laugh.

“You should’ve seen your face Hyung!” He said the moment he couldn’t hold his laughter anymore. He clapped his hands as he laughed and I could only look down in embarrassment. I could feel my cheeks turning red. Damn you Shim Changmin. “Oh hyung, I never knew you can be this cute.”

“Whatever,” I replied rolling my eyes and ignoring Changmin as he continued to laugh. He only stopped laughing when he saw Boa walking towards us. Changmin signalled me, saying that someone was right behind me and when I turned around, Boa was standing there with a smile.

“Hey Jae,” She called out and I saw that she was holding a can of cat food. Is she hungry or something? I then saw her pointing at the can. “How come they all have those numbers on it? What is it?”

I gently grabbed the can from her hands and I pointed at the price which had the bar code. “That number says how much it is. Look, it says it’s 8,000₩.”

 I then placed the can on the scanner and until the price appeared on the computer. “And then when you scan it, it appears on the computer. Awesome, right?”

I heard Boa gasp excitedly as she saw the number appear. She then clapped enthusiastically; her cute dimples were starting to appear. “Omo! That’s like magic!”

I smiled at Boa’s reaction. She’s like a cute little kid sometimes. I could hear Changmin snickering behind me but I just ignored him.

“Does that little machine know how much everything is?” Boa asked as she examined the till. I nodded back in reply. She then opened and looked straight at me as If she just thought of a brilliant idea. “Oh really? Hang on! I’m going to find another item and see if this machine is smart enough to know how much it is!”

And with that, she ran towards the store to go and get another item.

I faced Changmin and he had a confused look on his face. He looked at Boa and then he looked right at me, as if he could tell that something was fishy. I could only stare at him and give an awkward laugh. “How come she acts as if she’s never seen a till before? Has she been living in a cave her own life?!”

I softly laughed at Changmin’s remark.

“I guess you can say that.”

~~~

After a few hours, it was time to go home. Work was exhausting! With Boa running around the place like a kid and challenging the till to see if it’s smart enough to know what the prices of each item is.  Some customers even started to complain but luckily, they all let her off because she’s ‘pretty’. Oh, that pretty excuse again!

“Ah ha!” I remembered her face when she finally found an item which didn’t have the same price as it said on the sticker. “Look Jae! On the machine it says its 22,000₩! But the sticker says its 44,000₩!”

I looked at the item to check and then I saw a ‘half price’ sticker. I then gave the item back to Boa.

“Boa, it’s been reduced to 22,000₩. Look at the sticker, half price!” I told her, pointing at the sticker and then pointing back at the screen. She looked down disappointedly and then glared at the machine.

“Hmmm… Machine! I can prove that you’re not smart! I know I can!” She said, talking to the machine and then running around the place to get another item. I sighed in disbelief. I feel like I’m babysitting a 10 year old!

At the moment, we’re walking home but then suddenly, an idea came to my head.

“Hey Boa,” I called out her name and she stared right at me. Her brown eyes widened with curiosity. “Do you want to go to this awesome Pizza place where Yoochun works? They sell really delicious pizza! You haven’t tasted pizza before, am I right?”

I heard Boa gasp excitedly at the idea and then she nodded. “Sure! Pizza sounds nice! And I want to see Yoochunnie too.”

When I heard Boa’s nickname for Yoochun, for some reason, I felt a pang of pain. How come Yoochun has his own nickname? Boa has never given me a nickname before…

“You know, I called Yoochunnie oppa this morning to ask where you live. Without him, I wouldn’t have known where you live,” I heard Boa said with a smile on her face. Every time she says that nickname, I feel like I’m being stabbed. And ‘Oppa’?! ‘OPPA’?! They’ve only known each other for a few days yet Boa has already associated Yoochun as Oppa! I’m older than Yoochun so Boa should be calling me oppa too!

“I bet Yoochun forced her to call him that,” I mumbled inaudibly hoping Boa wouldn’t realise, and I could feel myself feeling all angry for some reason. What is this feeling?

I didn’t realise that I’ve stopped walking until Boa called out to me and she was already a few steps away from me.

“Yah! Jaejoong! Let’s go! I want to eat some pizza!” She shouted and I only stared at her. Although she was looking happy and smiling, I suddenly didn’t have the urge to smile back. I just looked straight at her with a serious face.

 Suddenly, I saw her running towards me and then she grabbed my arm, pulling me with her. I didn’t really move however, when she said the next words, it made me smile a lot and I finally gave in.

“Let’s go Joongie Oppa! It’s Pizza time!”

~~~~

Another update! I managed to finish chapter 6 so I thought, meh~ why not post it right? :D

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter :D ^^
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