ALEX POV

“WAHHHHHH... It’s so nice here!!” the boy with the loud voice said, as they stepped inside the apartment. Truthfully, I was still shocked that Rain was so nice in renting out an apartment for me. The boy with an egg-shaped head looked at the others, and then said, “Introduction time?” I looked curiously as him, and all of a sudden, at the same time, they bowed and said, “Annyoung haseyo MBLAQ-imnida!” Cheondoong stood apart from the rest, “Since I’m the best with English here, they wanted me to help them introduce themselves.” Cheondoong dragged me over to the boy with an egg-shaped head, who smiled at me, and said, “Annyoung haseyo, Seungho imnida.” Cheondoong turned to me and said, “This is Seungho hyung, the leader of MBLAQ. As time goes by, you’ll get to see some of his talents. He’s 26 years old. By the way, how old are you?” I hesitated, “Uhh, in Korea, I’m 24, but in America, I’m 23.” Cheondoong gasped, “WAHHHH, you’re my noona!!” I smiled, “Yeah, I guess I am.” “I guess you know GO hyung pretty well, so we can skip him,” Cheondoong said. I frowned, “G.O.? His name is Byunghee though...” I said, pointing at him. “That’s just his stage name, no worries!” Cheondoong reassured me, so we skipped past Byunghee, and moved on. “This is the muscle idiot, Lee Joon. His real name is Lee Changsun. He’s also older than you, so you call him oppa,” Cheondoong explained. As soon as he heard his name, Joon gave me a bright smile and said, “Annyoung haseyo!” I smiled back and said, “Annyoung haseyo, Joon oppa.” Immediately, from all around the room, all I could here were multiple outbursts of “Aigooooo!” from the boys. I shot an alarmed look at Cheondoong and Byunghee.  They were cooing with the other boys, but were smiling, so I guess it wasn’t a bad sign. And so we moved on to the last person standing in the line. “This is Mir, the maknae of MBLAQ. His real name is Bang Cheolyong, and that’s usually what we call him in the dorm. He’s your dongsaeng, so you don’t have to call him ‘oppa’, but he has to call you ‘noona’.” I smiled at the boy with the loud voice, so he immediately bowed, and said, “ANNYOUNGHASEYO ALEX-UU NOONA” with a strong accent. It was too funny, and I burst out laughing, “Well I guess I know what type of stuff to teach you guys on Saturday!”

The boys helped me unpack and get settled in. They did a lot of the heavy lifting, refusing to even let me carry a single object. After they were finished, they spread themselves out on the floor, lying down in random places in the apartment, sweat rolling from their faces. “I feel so bad, making you carry all of these,” I pouted at Cheondoong. I had a feeling that we were going to become very close very soon, considering I could only talk to him. “It’s alright, Alex! We’re happy to get out of our practices anyways,” he grinned mischievously. Laughing, I went into the kitchen to pour them some water. I visited each of them and said, “Kamsamnida,” when giving them their water. All of them laughed upon hearing me say that, and even though I couldn’t understand anyone but Cheondoong, I got the feeling that they were reassuring me. Seungho was the last person I visited, since he was all the way in my room, looking confused at the small suitcase that I brought from USA. “Why... you pack so... little?” he asked, trying to make a conversation with me. I laughed at his funny English, “I didn’t have much to bring here in the first place,” I told him, making sure to enunciate clearly. “Oh,” he accepted my offer of water with a smile and a dip of his head, “Were you... not rich?” he asked. I smiled sadly, “No, my halmoni is actually pretty wealthy, but I just don’t own a lot of stuff.” He seemed to be deep in thought for a couple of seconds. Looking up, he asked, “What is... ‘wealthy’?” I burst out laughing. What I thought was a serious conversation turned hilarious because of his limited knowledge of English, “Wealthy means rich. My halmoni is actually quite rich.” Seungho’s cheeks reddened, “Oh...” he said quietly. I laughed and said, “It’s okay, I can teach you to speak fluently in English in one or two years. Of course, you guys will have to practice, but I’m sure it will be fine.”  He just looked up at me, confused. Damn it. I was probably speaking too quickly. “Never mind,” I mumbled, and still smiling, I walked out of the room, leaving him to ponder about what I might have been saying.

GO POV

The next few days were really odd for me. It was exciting for the rest of the members, but I felt like I was meeting Alex for the first time in my life. How had she forgotten Korean so quickly? I remember she used to be my best friend when we were 10 years old. I had so many different memories of her playing in the sandbox with me. I distinctly remembered the time when we got ice cream and I wiped some on her nose, then her trying to wipe it back on me. I smiled. How has the time flown by? I looked at the other members in the van. We were going to our first English lesson. Seungho was fiddling with his phone, Joon was sleeping, and Mir was poking a squirming Cheondoong. I looked back out the window. When she pointed me out and called my name, I was so surprised. She looked nothing like the girl I knew at 10 years old. Then again, 13 years had gone by. We used to be best friends, and now I have to rely on Doongie to communicate with her. She seemed a lot more reserved than I remember. What happened to the hyper Alex I used to play with? I breathed a sigh and looked out the window again, as we neared the apartment.

CHEONDOONG POV

I was relieved when we finally got out of the car. Cheolyong wouldn’t stop poking me, and Seungho was sitting in the front, so I couldn’t count on him to help me out. Sigh. Time to pull out the Cheolyong blackmail material... again. I snickered evilly. There were just too many things I could use against him. We walked into the building and went into the elevator. Alex was a nice girl, but she seemed a bit more timid than I expected. I mean, wasn’t she 24? That was usually the age when girls went loud and giggly. She was quieter than most girls I’ve met. Then again, I was a timid person, too. Maybe that’s why we get along pretty easily. I looked around as we ascended. Seungho was unplugging himself from his phone, Joon was wiping his saliva from his cheek, GO was shifting nervously from foot to foot, and Cheolyong was grinning happily, unaware of the blackmail material coming his way. It seemed that we were putting a lot of effort to make ourselves presentable. I wasn’t so concerned about this English class. I mean, I was the best at English out of the five of us. We all looked at each other before Seungho knocked on the door. We heard a hurried, “Coming!!” before the door opened. “HI ALEX!!” I said, smiling widely. I don’t know why, but I felt close to her already, like she was one of the boys... “Annyoung haseyo,” she said with a small smile, “Please, come in!” We stepped through the door, and looked around, clueless. What were we supposed to do next...? Alex smiled, “Just make yourselves comfortable.”

She tugged on my arm after I took off my shoes, “Cheondoong-shi? How good is their English? I don’t know what to teach them...” she mumbled. I laughed, “Just teach them from the basics, trust me, they might even have trouble with that,” I chuckled, “Oh, and you can call me Doongie or Thunder if you’d like. The boys call me Doongie, and Thunder is what Cheondoong means in English. There’s really no need for formalities with me.”

She smiled politely, and sighed in relief, I hoped. “Doongie...” she mumbled, still trying to get used to the nickname for me. I laughed and slung my arm over her shoulder, “You’ll get used to it, don’t worry,” I smiled at her, grateful that she didn’t shrug my arm off. Now that would have been awkward.

ALEX POV

I was actually kind of relieved that Cheondoong put his arm around my shoulder. It made me feel more comfortable and welcomed, even though it was my home. I looked at the four other members standing in the middle of the living room, unsure of what to do. To be honest, I myself wasn’t even sure how to proceed. “Erm... So how are you?” I awkwardly asked. The moment I asked the question, I saw flashes of anxiety and nervousness across their faces. My eyes widened. How did they not know how to answer a simple a question as that? I shot Cheondoong a look when he was about to open his mouth, “You aren’t allowed to talk for about 15 minutes. I need to see how well they can each speak English before I decide what to teach them first.” He snickered, but nodded and kept his mouth shut.

I turned to Seungho first, and asked him, “Hello. How are you doing today?” He gulped nervously, and then answered, “I am well. Thank you.” I chuckled softly at his simple sentences, “That’s good. What time did you have to wake up this morning?” His eyebrows pulled together for a couple of seconds before he spoke again, “I wake up at six am this morning.” I smiled, that’s better than some other phrases I’ve heard. Well, I have to start somewhere, right? So I moved onto Byunghee. Damn. He looks so much more different than I remember...

“How about you, Byunghee oppa? How are you today?” I asked with a smile, anticipating his answer. He scrunched up his face for a moment, trying to remember the answer Seungho gave, then replied, “I am good today, thank you Alex,” then he smiled like a 5 year old. “Do you have any idea of what you’re going to do today?” I asked. He hesitated, then asked, “Could you repeat please?”  I smiled, then repeated the question more slowly. “Erm... I think we come here to learning English today?” he stuttered near the end. I shrugged while laughing, “Not bad.”

Mir and Lee Joon were both worse than the two other members I talked to, but they made the atmosphere a lot more comfortable and we laughed a lot. The lesson passed with me teaching them basic phrases in English, and them in turn teaching me the polite and impolite ways of greeting a person.

“When is our next lesson?” I asked Seungho, eager to see if they had improved in their English skills to maybe tell me numbers, smiling when he stuttered, “Next... Next...” He suddenly got up from the table and went into the hall. He came back half a minute later, cheerfully holding a calendar up and pointed out a date. He grinned victoriously at me, and said, “This day!” I couldn’t help but laugh and nod at how child-like these 20 year olds were. “So I’ll see you next week?” I asked, cheerfully. Lee Joon smiled, “Yes, you will!” The rest of the members burst out laughing at how ridiculous the phrase sounded. “Noona, do you want to come over to our dorm for a little while? I feel like you could use some company,” Cheondoong said. I smiled sadly, and said, “No, that’s alright, I have a bunch of unpacking left to do. Thanks for asking though. Maybe next time.”

After I closed the door behind them, I breathed a deep sigh. They were all so cheerful, I felt bad for dampening their mood. I still wasn`t used to things in Korea, and halmoni sounded sick when she called last night. Things will get better... Things will get better. I shook myself out of my mood, and focused on unpacking.

MIR POV

“Wahhh, hyungs, what was up with Alex? She seemed kind of down...” I said in the elevator. “Really? I didn’t really notice...” Lee Joon said. Seungho shrugged, “Maybe her personality is just like that.” Turning to GO, I asked, “Hyung, you should know her a lot better than we do. What was she like when she was younger?” He thought for a moment, “I don’t THINK so... She used to be a lot more cheerful...” Cheondoong spoke up, “Meh, maybe she’s just like me. I don’t think I talk that much in real life.” I poked him, “Yah hyungie, I think you talk with her more than you talk with me.” The elevator door opened, and we left the apartment, still teasing Cheondoong.

ALEX POV

I opened my suitcase again for the 10th time today, and took out a couple of baggy t-shirts to put in my closet. Before I put them away into the closet, I pushed my face into the soft fabric and took a deep breath. Tears welled in my eyes. It smelled so much like home. I wondered how my halmoni was doing. I could almost picture her poking her head through the door, and asking what I wanted for dinner. Almost. Pushing back my tears, I laid my clothes into the closet. Not the time right now. I finished putting my clothes into my closet when I came upon a small picture of my halmoni holding my hand, and my older sister standing on the other side of her. Kiera was smiling and holding her stuffed bunny by the ears. I remember vaguely teasing her about the ears ripping off. She had hit me on my arm, and told me to stop joking around. This picture was taken a couple of months before my parents and brother died. A couple of months before Kiera moved away and pretended I never existed. “I miss you Kiera... And I’m sorry,” I whispered. The tears broke through the barriers I had put up against them, rolling down my cheeks and dripping onto the bed. “I miss you... I miss you...” I kept repeating, and soon I forgot which one of them I missed. Not that it mattered anymore. I lay down exhausted, tears still falling from my eyes, and held the picture to my heart. I remembered that the picture Rain samchon gave me that first day was still in my bag, and made a mental note to myself to frame the picture and put it on my bedside table.