CHAPTER 6

They reached the restaurant in 15 minutes. Everyone was already seated and chatting and laughing. When Ji Hoo reached the table, the guys greeted him joyfully. Mandy was till then hidden behind Ji Hoo’s tall frame. He stepped aside and introduced her to the gang and each one in the group to her. After the introductory ‘HI s’ were said, Woo Bin got up from his seat and walked to Mandy, took both her hands in his, kissed them and said “Es un placer conocerte al fin Senorita” (‘it’s a pleasure to finally meet you miss’ in Spanish). Yi Jung had misled Woo Bin and said that she was of Latin descent, and no one had corrected him. They all had been waiting for this moment when F4’s Don Juan made a fool of himself in front of a girl.

The whole group started laughing loudly and Yi Jung was clutching his stomach to stop the pain he got from laughing. Woo Bin was confused as to what was going on.

Mandy put the poor guy out of his misery. “Umm, I’m actually an Indian…… but I’m flattered that F4’s Don Juan would actually mistake me for a Latina. Really, I’m flattered.”

Woo Bin turned 10 shades of red from embarrassment and started sending his best friends death glares, but in the end joined in the joke.

Ji Hoo was on translation duty for the night. The conversation on the table was going on in English mainly, to make Mandy feel comfortable. But whenever something was said in Korean between the friends, Ji Hoo translated that for her.

The conversation had drifted towards how the F4’s lives were full of drama. “Can you even imagine the number of Bollywood movies that could be produced from the collective drama of your lives?” said Mandy jokingly.

Suddenly she heard Ga Eul exclaim “Shahrukh Khan!”

This caught Mandy’s attention and she was now very curious as to how this girl knew about the famous Indian actor.

“I watch the versions with english subtitles. I love the drama, and the whole background makes it feel like I am watching a musical.”

Mandy smiled at this, feeling proud that her country’s culture was spreading to other parts of the world.

“I even got my DDLJ moment” Ga Eul said

“Which one?” Mandy asked

“You know the large fields of yellow flowers that Simran was in; I got mine at Jeju Island” Ga Eul said “Even though it was at a inconvenient time” she added sadly

This whole talk led to discussion about the vast culture of India. Mandy very animatedly explained how different regions had different cuisines, languages, religions, costumes and customs. India was just a big boiling pot of everything under the sun.

Mandy was explaining about how, in India, every 20 kms or so, languages changed their form.

“So what all languages do you speak?” asked an excited Woo Bin. The main reason of his excitement was so that he would be fully prepared if another situation, like earlier in the evening, came up.

“I actually speak only Hindi and Punjabi. Punjabi, is my home language, I talk in it with generally the elders in the family and with my friends I talk in Hindi and English both. But I can understand the basis of the talk in other dialects of Hindi.”

“Mandy, I have seen quite a few movies to understand that ‘Mandy’ is not really a common name there. What’s the story behind it?” inquired Ga Eul

“Well this is not my real name” Mandy started explaining “my real name is quite a mouthful. I mean for you guys. I got christened Mandy by my school friends, because my name seemed similar. When I went to the States, I told people to call me Mandy only rather than getting my name wrong and I continued that here too.”

“So what’s your name then?” asked Yi Jung

“Oh it’s quite a mouthful for you guys, so let’s just leave it”

“I’m too interested now to let go, tell us” demanded Jun Pyo

“It’s Mandeep Kaur; m-a-n-d-e-e-p k-a-u-r”

“Like Man and Deep together” stated Woo Bin

“Yes, but it’s not pronounced like that. See that’s why I used Mandy, it was easier for everyone”

“What does it mean? Your name” asked Ji Hoo

“Man can be roughly called heart and Deep means lamp; my name thus means light of the soul”

“It’s very pretty with an unusual meaning” said Yi Jung

“Well it may have an unusual ring to it but the name’s actually quite common back home. I remember when I was in 3^rd grade; I had two guys named Mandeep in my class.”

“Boys and girls have same names in India?” asked Jun Pyo

“No no no, it’s not like that. Like I said before, cultures vary from region to region. By knowing anyone’s name you can tell which region, religion and/or community the person belongs to. In the religion that I follow; boys and girls are differentiated by their second names. Just like you and your sister have same first names; Jun Pyo and Jun Hee. Likewise girls and boys can have same first names. What is different is the second name; Singh in case of boys and Kaur in the case of girls.”

“But don’t ask me what they mean and denote. That would take us the whole night. I once started explaining it to one of my school mates. Took me a whole day to describe the history behind it; was quite a memory booster for me too if you ask. Cleared out the cobwebs that were setting in on the unused info” Mandy was remembering how she had gone on and on about her culture when one of her friends had lightly asked what her name meant. Quite an incident that was…

“You miss home?” this was the first thing Jan Di spoke directly to Mandy that evening. She had seen the sadness in the other girl’s eyes when she talked about her past.

Mandy almost burst in tears. She had been missing her home even before Ji Hoo had called her that evening and now talking about it made it even worse.

There was a catch in and misty eyes when she gave a weak ‘yes’ as a reply.

Seeing her like this Ji Hoo got up from his seat, knelt down next to hers and hugged her sideways and rubbed her arm. She turned in his direction and hugged him fully, but didn’t let go of herself. This was not the place to break down. Everyone was surprised by Ji Hoo’s actions, even Ji Hoo himself was surprised by his actions but didn’t read too much into it.

“Are you okay? Do you want to go home now?” Ji Hoo asked

She nodded once. Ji Hoo got up and helped her stand.

Mandy turned towards everyone else and started apologizing for ruining their evening, but was cut-off by Jun Pyo. “There is no need to apologize, we understand. I was gone for 4 years and only got back recently, so I understand your feelings.”

“Wow, Jun Pyo actually saying sensible things, this is a rare moment” said Yi Jung. Everyone started laughing and Jun Pyo as usual, flipped out.

“Well how about I take you to a nice Indian restaurant for dinner sometime, huh?” said Woo Bin in a completely sincere way. There wasn’t a hint of mischief in his words.

“That would be nice” Mandy said smiling weakly.

“It’s a date then” he added playfully.

“Ok, I think we should be going now” started Ji Hoo. He took Mandy’s hand in his and dragged her out of the restaurant. She was too surprised to act first but came to her senses and pulled Ji Hoo to a stop at the entrance of the parking lot.

“What was that?” Mandy demanded; she didn’t understand the sudden change in his mood.

“Stay away from him”

“Huh?”

“Woo Bin, stay away from him. He might seem harmless but don’t forget that he is dubbed as F4’s Don Juan.”

“Whoa, wait a minute; you don’t believe your best friend?”

“It’s not that I don’t believe him; it’s just that he doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to girls. He has trampled on too many a hearts to count. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great guy indeed but that’s exactly it; he’s a guys’ guy but when it comes to girls, if history is anything to go by, all he’s ever left behind is a trail of broken hearts and tear stained tissues. As a friend I’m warning you to not get too friendly with him.” He couldn’t believe he was saying things like this for his best friend. It was just that Woo Bin had seemed a little too interested in her and Ji Hoo didn’t want to see her get hurt.

“First off, I appreciate the gesture, thank you. But that was not the way to behave; don’t ever do that again. Secondly, he is not my type. So don’t worry. And thirdly, even if I was interested in him, it’s none of your damn business. I am an adult and can make my own decisions; you are no one to take them for me.”

There was no questioning that Mandy was pissed off by Ji Hoo’s behavior. She was already sick of being treated like a baby by her family; she didn’t need her friends to do the same.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.” Ji Hoo had always been a very calm person, who thought before acting. But he just couldn’t control his actions around Mandy. Being around her, made him fell relaxed yet edgy at the same time and this feeling was a new one, so he didn’t know what to do about it.

“And thanks for inviting me to dinner, I enjoyed a lot.” Mandy was hitting herself mentally for yelling at Ji Hoo like that and was trying to neutralize the situation. ‘He was only looking out for me and didn’t want to see me get hurt. He was being a good friend and I go and yell at him. Great’ she thought.

“Well you seemed like a person who would like Italian” Ji Hoo said half heartedly as they were walking towards his car.

“Well as a matter of fact I do love eating Italian food and have been a fan for a very long time. So thanks again and sorry for back there; I shouldn’t have reacted like that; you were only looking out for me.”

“No, you don’t need to apologize; you are right, I cannot make your decisions for you” and got into the car.

Mandy knew that she had hurt him by saying those words. ‘He poured his heart out in front of me that day. He must be feeling dejected now, feeling like he wasn’t considered a friend yet to show even a bit of protectiveness.’

As Ji Hoo kept on driving in silence, Mandy was kicking herself mentally. She didn’t know how to mend things with him. Just as she had the thought, she saw the solution coming up on the side of the road.

“Ji Hoo, stop the car. NOW”

Her sudden proclamation made him hit the breaks so hard, that if they didn’t have seatbelts on, both of them would have gone through the windshield.

Too much happened in this chapter! And that little sentence in Spanish was translated by an app so please don't hate me if the grammar is incorrect!