The First Time The Note Came Back In My Third Month in Korea 

As I’m sure you guessed, Joon ended up paying for half the tab after losing to an extensive game of 369 (12789 was retired for the sake of everyone’s sanity) in which I did not participate. Thankfully, we got McDonald’s (which, after all the gimchi I’ve been eating, tasted like heaven) so you’d think it’d be pretty cheap, right?

Keep in mind, twelve people were fed.

Yeah, that’s a little different, especially when six of us eat like oxes—though Rain Sunbae says that when I get a manager (because I sort of just exist incognito in the music industry) I will probably have my calorie intake cut in half to lose weight. Until that time comes, however, I will eat until I feel like I’ll explode.

We goof off for a while until Rain Sunbae calls me. “Yeoboseyo?” I answer, fighting laughter as Mir draws obscene objects on windows—and G.O. blows air on the window to keep it fogged up.

“I’m telling you now,” he says, “you and the boys will be practicing. You have ten minutes to get everything together after you get to the apartment. Late night practice, prepare yourselves.”

I sigh, “Ne, Sunbae.”

And as if a switch was set, all of them turn and look at me, expectant. I hang up, my shoulders dropping with a sigh. “We,” I say to the ceiling, “have midnight practice. And I have the feeling I don’t get to sleep this time.”

There’s a miniscule amount of whining—mostly from Mir who probably ate double his weight in French fries—before the boys seem to start getting into practice mode. Manager hyung (who, despite not being “hyung” to me, is “hyung”in my mind because I’ve never heard him called “Manager Oppa”) says, as he flicks on his right blinker, “We’ll stop by the dorm first, and then we’re off to the studio. Be quick, we don’t have much time.”

Quick we are. We bustle into the dorm, kicking off shoes hurriedly and jogging to rooms; we learned quickly that it’s quite difficult for six people to be ready in a short period of time—especially when they all share a bathroom.

Just as I’ve dropped my pants, there’s a loud, chronic knocking on my door.

“YAH!” I yell, too hurried to care about respect. “I don’t have pants on! Can you wait a second?!”

The knocking stops, and just as I think I’ve been given a moment to think, Joon yells, “I don’t know how! You have all of mine! Give me a pair!”

“Aish!” I yell, yanking open the door (after putting on sweatpants) and glaring up at him. “Go find them yourself!”

Then I stalk out my room, and into the living room, where Cheondung sits on the couch. “You’re not going to change?”

He shakes his head, and I wrinkle my nose, though I should’ve expected as much; he always practices in every day clothes—which totally weirds me out. Regardless, I plop down next to him, the first time in a while I get to talk to my ‘older brother.’

His arm rests across the back of the couch, close enough to let me know he’s there and away enough to tell me he’s okay if I leave—much like our real life relationship.

I smile up at him, “Things are going good now, huh?”

He smiles, nods. Then, in the octopus voice, “You seem happy.”

I laugh, nodding my head. “I really feel like I’m improving.”

Joon walks out just as Cheondung is showing me a new game on his phone, and I watch as he stares at me with a blank expression.

What, am I not allowed to talk with someone? Is it against the Prince’s wishes?

Obviously he reads the agitation in my face, and instead of calling me out, he snorts. “I’ll be waiting outside,” he says in passing.

Cheondung senses something too, because he’s silent. The world is silent, and only Joon makes noise as he pulls on his shoes, and then calmly shuts the door.

When the handle clicks back into place after his departure, I feel my breath escape me in a hollow swoosh.

“What was that about?” Cheondung asks in English.

“I don’t know!” I answer, also in English. The words feel foreign on my tongue. “I swear; he hasn’t been like that since I first got here! Ever since the mall we’ve been so great, getting along so well and I thought—”

I stop. What had I thought? That Joon liked me?

Yeah, I had.

Cheondung finishes for me, “There were feelings between you.”

I nod, “Right!”

He shakes his head. “I wasn’t finishing your sentence. I was stating a fact. Joon has feelings for you.”

“Oh, really?!” I say, sarcastic, mind you. “Then why is he being so…hot and then cold?!”

“Cause you’re hot then you’re cold, you’re yes then you’re no, you’re in then you’re out, you’re up th—”

I glare up at him, “Now is not the time for Asian Katy Perry parodies, you hear me? This is serious!”

Cheondung laughs. “No, it really isn’t. Just give him time; he’s sensitive.”

We stand after he says this as the other members begin walking out their room. And off to practice we are.

***

Sensitive my ! Literally! My is now sensitive! I’ve been in this damn room for nine hours, and Joon has been pushing and shoving and completely ignoring my existence.

And it isn’t helping that I keep falling!

I wore new shoes, just to break them in.

Turns out these shoes slide like a motherer on this floor.

So I’m being bullied by the guy I like, worked to the bone by a man I occasionally dislike, and I literally feel like I’m working my off.

“Okay,” Rain Oppa says when the song, some remix, ends for the umpteenth time. “You’ve worked hard. Go home, shower, sleep. You have another schedule tomorrow.”

And off we are, into the car where I sit by Mir and get completely ignored by Joon despite my attempts of talking to him.

And up the stairs we are, where I am also completely ignored by Joon—despite my slip on the eighth step.

And into the dorm we are, where we all kick off our shoes and the other members lounge about.

Joon does something very unlikely, though. He grabs a clean towel, and makes his way towards the bathroom: the first today to shower. He walks in, and turns, shutting the door until just his head pokes out.

He looks pissed. “You know, Lucy,” he says, voice cold. “Next time you steal someone’s extremely personal things, you might want to try putting it in a less obvious place.”

Oh, .