J J A J A N G M Y U N - 02

April 15th, 2014

 "MinAe..." SungGyu suddenly said, returning to his serious-talk-voice.

I pushed myself up on my elbows, looking at the spot where I guessed his eyes were. "Your soju problem?" I joked, "I think I can help you out with that one. We do deliver soju."

He nudged my hip with his right foot. I opened my mouth to complain, but he already started talking.

"Thanks for being you."

"What?" I answered, taken by surprise. Why this sudden change of atmosphere?

"Remember when we first met?" he asked, a feeling of melancholy in his voice.

"This is why they call you Grandpa Gyu," I tried to ease the tension. "Have you ever heard yourself?"

"Ya, MinAe, I'm being serious," he whined, and made himself lie down next to me with one swift movement. He had to pop his legs against the railing, being enviably tall and all. I tried not to envy him for his long legs, and focused on the topic instead.

"Sorry," I said. "But...what are you getting at?"

"It's been two years since the day where we first came here. Remember how I asked you to not tell anyone I ordered jjajangmyun for Black Day?"

We both chuckled at the memory. How could I ever forget my first hour spent with the infamous Infinite leader SungGyu? He had made me promise back then to not tell anyone about our encounter. The paranoid boygroup leader he was, he didn't even tell me which bell to ring until a few months of delivering jjajangmyun.

"Or last year on Black Day, when you were crushing on A-Pink's Oh HaYoung?" I added, knowing this was a sensitive topic.
SungGyu groaned. "I'll never hear the end of it, will I?"

"Nope."

He sighed, then added, "this . Why don't I know any of your crushes?"

"Because, my dear famous idol friend, my crushes are normal human beings," I explained, "who are not on television 24/7."

He turned his head in my direction. "So, this implies that you currently have a crush?"

I shook my head at the mention of a crush. A person definitely popped into my mind. No way in hell was I going to tell SungGyu about Lee-seonsaengnim. It was awkward enough that I was crushing on my 15 years older English teacher and I did't need anyone to know about it. Especially not SungGyu.

SungGyu raised an eyebrow, but didn't bother me further. "But you do have an idol crush, right?"

That much I could give him. I nodded, unwilling to tell him a name.

"You're the type of girl to crush on handsome idols," he mused. 

I resisted the urge to kick him for so naturally assuming I was superficial.

"Am I?“ I wondered. For those who cared, my idol crush was non other than JYJ’s Xiah JunSu. Was he handsome? Yes. But was he my crush thanks to his looks? No.

"Definitely." His answer came painfully fast.

"Actually," I tried to explain, "I like my crush's voice better than his looks…and idols are usually handsome, so describing him as handsome won’t help you at all..."

“Give me a second."

Thinking about it by myself, I might have had a thing for older guys. Junsu? Lee-ssem? Maybe there was some weird complex going on, since I grew up with my aunt and uncle, while my parents went overseas to work in Canada. But then again, I still had my uncle, so why would I have an older men complex? 

"Jay Park?" SungGyu offered, jolting me off my thoughts.

I laughed. SungGyu must remember I had had a weakness for his 'Girlfriend' single. "He's cute, but no."

"How exactly is he...'cute'?" SungGyu asked. "I thought he was...cool? Manly? But cute?"

"Don't ask," I was not in the mood to explain girl-logic to him.

He chuckled, then cleared his throat. "Kim SungGyu?" 

There was this unsaid agreement between the two of us, where we never talked about my thoughts on Infinite prior to meeting SungGyu. I had never been a fan of them, but I didn't dislike their music, either. To me, they were mainly cheesy, with catchy melodies. And knowing how SungGyu behaved off-stage made it very hard to even imagine having an idol crush on him. He was just one of my best friends; not because we knew each other very well, or because we spend a lot of time with each other, but because we enjoyed the times spend together in an effortless way.

I guess he felt the same way.

"Well?"

"You wish," I said and tried to wink at him.  

He laughed at my failed attempt of eye-winking, but didn't quite give up. "2PM TaecYeon?"

I shook my head. "No"

"Shinee's MinHo?"

"Ew, no, he's gay"

"Poor boy."

"Why?"

"You never even met him, and already he's labeled as gay."

"Well, look at him!" I defend myself, laughing. "How could he be straight?"

"It's his image! Entertainment works this way…MinAe."

"Gay!"

"If he's gay to you, then what am I? My image isn't any manlier than his!" SungGyu tried to reason with me.

Wrong move to pull himself into this. "Exactly," I said, grinning smugly.

"Wai- What? Am I gay to you?!" All humour died from his voice.

"Jokiiiing!" I gasped, breaking into laughter. "Gosh, you're so easy to tease..."

"Not funny," he complained, but I caught the shadow of a smile on his face.

We lay in comfortable silence for a minute, until he popped another name: "G-Dragon!"

"Give up already, SungGyu."

"You must have an idol crush! Every girl has one!" he exclaimed, "It's how I earn my money, I would know!"

Clearly, I was not impressed by his reasoning. "Really?"

"I'll find out, sooner or later..." he sighed, absentmindedly running his hand through his hair.

"Not happening," I just said, and stretched my arms out above my head, "How did we even end up talking about my crushes?"

He chuckled, "I don't even know..."

I groaned. "Great...there goes my honor."

"But, help me out here..." SungKyu continued, "Can you comfirm that your crush is handsome and has a nice voice?"

I nodded, wary of where this conversation was heading.

"How is that not me?" he flashed me a bright smile, pointing his finger at his chest.

I rolled my eyes. "Boy...."

He laughed, still pointing at himself: "Just admit it already."

"Not happening. My crush is a whole different level. I do have crush-standards, you know."

He let his arm sink. "Pff... and here I actually just wanted to thank you."

"For?"

"Your advice."

"Which one?"

"All of them," SungGyu grinned. "Somehow you managed to sneak into my weird life, and now every time I am struggling with the boys, I think of how you would tell me ways to deal with them."

"Wow," I said, impressed by his unusual deep words. Normally he only got this serious when talking about his group's members. "What's it with the sentimental talk?"

He sighed, but it was a weird kind of sigh. Happy and sad all at once. "I have been feeling kind of nostalgic lately. With my birthday and Infinite's four year anniversary coming up, I remembered that it's, in a way, also the anniversary of our friendship."

"You're so cheesy," I nudged him. "No wonder you are the leader of your cheesy boygroup."

"And you are such a mood-killer, no wonder all you ever do is deliver jjajangmyun!" 

I grinned. "Nice comeback."

"Anyways...thanks for all your random every-day survival advice."

"Like, leaving hair conditioner in over night for maximum silky hair level?" I mused, thinking about the things that actually made for big problems in my friend's life. 

He laughed, remembering the awkwardness. "Oh god, that's the first time I asked for your advice... I was so scared you might tell publicity..."

"What? That DongWoo was having a hard hair-time being confronted with dry ends for the first time in his life?" I shook my head. Paranoid boygroup leader.

"It's not that uncommon for stupid stuff like that to cause problems..." SungGyu tried to defend himself.

"You're not that famous, boy."

"That's exactly what I mean. You don't give me special treatment. With you I feel like a normal person." 

I rolled my eyes. "You are a normal person, SungGyu. It's just that you are a bit famous..."

"You are clearly blind to the world, MinAe. Have you had a look around lately?" 

"Why?"

"There's a 10 feet tall poster of none other than me all plastered over Myeongdong!"

"OH," I feigned surprise, cautiously rolling out of SungGyu's reach, "That's you?"

"Yah, you're dead!" He laughed and tried to smack my head, but I was too far away already, even for his long arms. By the time he was on his feet, I had already collected his dishes, making my way to the rooftop entrance.

"The famous boys on that Myeongdong poster should be done eating my uncle's jjajangmyun by now, right?" I asked, winking at SungGyu.

"Stop that winking, girl," he smiled, holding the door open for me. "It looks like you have something in your eye…"

xoxo JaeRin