I unlocked the door and just as I expected, Baro stood in front of me with his wide grin still plastered on his face. Dressed in his favourite blue hoodie & jeans, he greeted me, "HEY!!! I brought something for you!"

 

Gleamingly, he held up a plastic bag which was covered with water droplets. From the looks of it, I was sure what it was exactly.

 

"Chocolate?" I asked excitedly.

"Your favourite, Haagen Dazs." He answered proudly. 

 

Before I knew it, I started giggling to myself. It must have been the ice cream or maybe... because of Baro just being here. 

 

"Indeed, Baro-sshi. Despite your unforeseen appearance, we are glad to welcome you into our house. Of course, with that precious ice cream of yours." I jokingly said as I showed the way in before the both of us broke out into laughter.

 

I guessed we were too loud since Seunghyun popped out of the room and started shouting from upstairs asking for who it was.

 

"Yo, Seunghyun!" Baro greeted casually. It seemed that the both of them had been on good terms after all the frequent meetings we had in the past months. 

 

"Ayo, Baro hyung! Come on up!" replied my same-aged brother.

 

Baro turned towards the stairs while I headed over to the kitchen to grab some spoons for the irresistible ice cream. But really, who will reject Haagen Dazs chocolate?! As I was going towards the stairs, I saw Baro still standing in the middle of the stairs which caught me by surprise. Supposedly, he should have reached the room by then. 

 

"What are you still doing here?" I questioned him.

"Waiting for you, what else? Come on!" Baro stretched out his hands towards me.

 

It was just like how he first willingly held out his hands to me when we first met. Remembering that incident just made me shake my head, amused. Gladly, I grabbed his hand as I was reminded of how grateful I was to him; for without him, I can never be who I really am. I've earned a really good friend.

 

We're back in the room and of course, Boram Unni and Hyunseung Oppa openly welcomed Baro. Who doesn't want an extra brain to contribute in any brainstorm session, right?

 

As a matter of fact, Baro is actually part of this special team. We call it 'The Bleep Team'. Please don't ask me why we called it that. There's no one else to blame besides Boram Unni. She came up with it and seeing how much she loved it, it was pointless for us to object unless we were willing to get through an intense debate with her - which of course, is never the case. Each of us has a role to play and we have only one goal; to find out who our dad really is.

 

We only know that Appa is our father but that is all there is to it honestly. There was too much suspicion to overlook - the camera in our name tags, his constant uncalled business out of the house that lasted for days, being surrounded by a bunch of specialized men in God knows what, Teentop doubtful actions at times under his instruction and his repeated requests to keep a low profile.What is his job exactly? After all these years, why must he insist on keeping a very close watch of all his kids outside of the house? His whole identity is still a secret to us and our spilling curiosity led to the formation of this team. 

 

 

 

 

 

 B1A4(Baro,Jinyoung,Sandeul,Shinwoo,Gongchan)

 

 

With my mouth still filled with ice cream, Baro who was sitting beside me nudged me and whispered, "It's your turn."

 

"Huh?" I glanced back at him with a rather constricted face. (I was trying to withstand the brain freeze.)

 

As soon as he saw me, his eyes became wide open and he quickly covered his mouth with his hands, trying to suppress his laughter. I looked up and realized Boram Unni standing in front of the 'whiteboard' window with her arms crossed. I swallowed the melted ice cream slowly and gave her a sheepish smile. I placed my fingers on my chin as I started to get my brains working. 

 

"Well, I have a lot of ideas in mind but some are quite ridiculous so just bear with me alright. First, Appa could be running a bodyguard firm where they guard important people in the country. Secondly, Appa could be buliding an army of men to take over the world by stopping corruption abd advocate a greater good. Or maybe, Appa's just a gangster leader trying to take over the world through evil means."

 

"How can you talk about your father like that?" Baro exclaimed, surprised by my words.

 

"Well, I honestly don't know much about him. I don't even know if he's a good guy or not." I continued, "In fact, I don't even remember much about him to be called as part of our family. I don't think I recalled any time when we went out as a family with him. The only time we spend time together is during dinner and we don't even say a word then. The more I think about it, Appa is just a father by name only. Even Omma's not telling us anything!!"

 

Before I realized it, tears started to form in my eyes. I looked around and saw how my brothers just continued to sit with their heads hung down. On the other hand, Boram Unni's back faced me but I could see her hands wiping away her tears. I couldn't believe I was the first one to rant about my dad like that. It seemed like I got carried away by my emotions. Appa was there but not always there. That's the main reason why we were doing this. We didn't want to be left in the dark anymore. I started crying my heart out and Baro's pat on my back just made me cry harder.

 

After I cooled down for a bit, I managed to blurt,"I'm so..rry."

"No, don't be. You're right. That's the whole reason we're doing this." said Hyunseung calmly.

 

Boram Unni went to the window and wrote the suggestions I gave in short form. She turned around and with much effort, she managed to put on a smile.

 

"We shall end today's meeting here. Let's go down for dinner together." She finally said after a long, deep breath.

 

Everyone started to leave one by one. Hyunseung Oppa ruffled my hair on his way out as if telling me that it was okay. Then, there was only Baro and I left in the room. None of us spoke a word and only my occasional sniffle was heard.

 

After a while, Baro broke the silence, asking, "Can I hug you?" That was unexpected but my face softened at his question and replied him by closing the gap between us before we embraced each other. Feeling comforted to be in his hands, I managed a soft "Thank you."

 

---

Thought this was quite a long chapter for me. Nonetheless, I'm slowly getting a hang of writing now. Just to let you guys know, I actually write down my story in this book I have before I type it out.

Anyway, hope you guys liked it! Do subscribe if you liked it & comment on what you think of it below!

감사합니다! Kamsahabnida ^_^

 

Now, a snippet of my travel in Korea :)

This was taken at a cozy cafe I went in Busan where I tried out the Patbingsu and it was awesome!

 

 

Much love,

kimchi_ramen

Photo credit to me.