Chapter 7: Meet the family, pt. 1

Ready on stage!

Lights!

Places!

GO!

Current place: Osaka, Japan

Current Date: April 12, 2014

Occasion: YG family concert.

Backstage:

“Where is she?” DaeSung looked at his pacing hyung – who was currently on his phone, waiting for a text from that one special girl that seems to be occupying his thoughts once again.

So in short, the usual.

“She’s coming” was the distracted answer as he typed away, a smile on his face. He didn’t really have to worry about time right now – Big Bang wasn’t going to be on stage until at least 10 songs from their label mates.

“So why are you still pacing and texting?” DaeSung was a bit amused, to be honest.

“The pacing is because of nerves, texting is because we’re still talking.”

“You’ve been texting non-stop with each other since you got her number, do you ever sleep?” JiYong asked as he came in their changing room.

“We stop texting when the other falls asleep.” YoungBae shrugs. “And she barely has anything to do at home, while I mostly stay up all night for the album – so yeah…we text a lot.” Just as he finished, his phone rang again – that ‘special’ ring tone he set aside just for her filling the room.

He quickly opened his phone and smiled, his eyes opening just a bit more to stare properly at the screen before he bolted out the door.

“Where’s he going?” SeungHyun asked as he just came in – YoungBae nearly toppling him over in his rush to go.

“My guess is that Azalea’s here.” DaeSung voiced out, an odd look on his face as he looked at the door his hyung went through as if he’s never seen it before. “He’s been pacing a hole in the floor earlier texting her.”

“Do they ever sleep?” SeungRi asked, being the next one to come in. “All they do is text these days.”

“Apparently, they stop texting when the other falls asleep.” JiYong informed him.

“Which barely happens cause she gets bored in her place doing nothing, and he stays up all night working.” DaeSung added, amusement coloring his tone.

SeungRi blinked at the information before shrugging, taking a seat at one of the couches further into the room. “They’re sounding like a newlywed couple – busy husband who works all night, lonely housewife at home who bothers her husband at work with nothing to do.”

“Heh,” SeungHyun snickered. “Sounds like a kdrama about to happen – rich husband, rich wife, nothing to do at the end besides exploiting their money.”

“At least until kids come in.” JiYong was amused.

“Kids?” DaeSung voiced out, a thoughtful look in his face before shaking his head. “I can’t imagine her pregnant.”

The others thought about that for a second – small, fragile-looking Azalea with an innocent look in her face, giggling and laughing at the tiniest things they do. They tried to imagine her round with child and found that they couldn’t – for one thing, she didn’t look her age, and another because…well…to be honest, none of them can imagine her doing the things needed for one to get pregnant. Despite the fact that she could technically be their maknae’s year – she was born ’91, unlike SeungRi’s ’90, but she was born ‘early’ – she still gave off the same feeling as the flower she was named after; beautiful and vulnerable.

They didn’t get to voice out their opinion when the door suddenly opened, a – now familiar – giggle coming in the room as YoungBae and Azalea came in, her two towers following her. YoungBae was looking a bit sulky – though it was obvious that Azalea giggling was making quite the good work in putting his good mood back.

“What are you giggling about?” SeungRi asked, just a bit amused – they were all getting used to the two of them acting like they were in their own world. And they’ve made it their personal mission to send them crashing back to Earth whenever it seems like they want to take permanent residence wherever it is they wanted to go to. Which was quite a lot, so more the fun for them.

“He’s sulky” Azalea affirmed their thoughts with another giggle when YoungBae turned an accusing eye on her.

“Why?” JiYong asked, a smile on his face.

“Cause I decided to grace him with my fabulous self.” A sarcastic with a slight American accent voice sounded behind the door before opening – it was Jae Hyun, a dry, yet amused look on his face as YoungBae sulked further. “Which, I don’t really get, considering I am me.” Clearly he and Azalea were quite different when it comes to proper customs cause he had no problem going in the room – ignoring the shocked look on their faces – before dragging Azalea from the still shocked YoungBae onto his lap as he sat down on a recliner.

“You must be Jae Hyun…” SeungHyun drawled, amusement coloring his tone when YoungBae flushed with anger – and a bit of embarrassment – at the site of the two ‘best friends’. Embarrassment came from the fact that said best friend gave him a teasing wink before putting his arms around the still giggling Azalea’s waist.

“And you must be the man that’s been haunting my dreams for a while now – you ready to compensate for all the sleepless nights I’ve had because of you, or are you going to make it even worse?” He didn’t even seem to need a second before he blurted that piece of art out his mouth – though the last part was kinda tinted with amusement when he saw that SeungHyun flushed just a bit at his words.

“Yep, that’s Jae Hyun.” JiYong mused, a small smirk on his lips, an eyebrow raised at the rather shameless act the boy was giving out – emphasis on act, based on the amusement he had hidden behind the haughty persona whenever he looked at YoungBae.

“Yes…” the s was dragged out like a hiss as he looked at the still giggling girl on his lap.

Who squeaked when he suddenly poked her on both her sides.

“You gonna stop giggling any time soon?” He asked, just a bit amused, his arms back around her waist again – if, just to smite YoungBae.

Said girl just started giggling all over again, lasting quite a few minutes before finally being able to calm herself – the entire time, she spent on his lap, clutching his shirt, and his neck as she hid her face into it as one of the harder giggles escaped her.

“You fine now?” Jae Hyun asked a few seconds after she calmed down – the others in the room were kinda stuck in a shell-shocked state at the two.

The question brought out another giggle out of her before she nodded, leaning back in his lap one more time to seemingly rest.

“Mind getting off me then?” The smirk on his face told JiYong that he already knew the answer and that it was probably one that YoungBae wouldn’t like.

Suspicion confirmed when she just moved slightly in his lap, moving a hand to go around his neck one more time before shaking her head.

“Too wobbly right now…” she trailed off, another giggle escaping her lips before calming down again.

Instead of looking at the – clearly – jealous YoungBae, JiYong took the time both were still and not moving so much to examine just who Jae Hyun was appearance wise.

Just who was this boy that made his bestfriend be on edge so much?

From first glance, it was clear that he was most probably half Korean, half American – he had a tall and slender built softened by the Korean in him that made him look a bit like an anime character come to life. His hair – JiYong  thinks – was black at first impression, but now looks like rich chocolate in the light and was cut like an idols would – framing his face, sleek and shiny but styled in a way that complimented his features. His eyes were brown, but lighter, and at first JiYong thought he was wearing contacts. They were surrounded by thick and long eyelashes that casted shadows on his cheeks whenever he blinked. His nose was tall and slightly crooked – but not unattractively. He had high cheekbones that went with the slender cut of his jaw. His lips – which were now placing a soft kiss on Azalea’s forehead – were thin but plump over a straight set of pearl white teeth.

All in all, he seemed like the guy that looks Korean at first glance, foreigner second – and the way he carried himself demanded that second glance. His moves were precise as he patted Azalea’s head, his muscled arms pronounced when moving even under the padding of his jacket.

At that thought, JiYong finally noticed his outfit. It fit him nicely and emphasized his muscles at the right place and his rather slim waist.

He looked like a young ordinary Korean man – much more eye-catching and handsome than the next man, but you can’t really tell he’s a foreigner until that second glance. Unless you look at his obvious height – JiYong thinks he could easily be at least 182 cm tall.

Handsome, tall, witty and clearly close with her. Plus, he doesn’t really act like he’s gay – unless you count that flirty line with SeungHyun earlier. No wonder YoungBae was jealous.

 “OK,” Azalea’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. “I’m fine now.”

“Are you sure?” Jae Hyun looked at her with suspicion before poking her at the corner of her lips. “I can see a smile still tugging at you here.”

At that, she smiled again before nodding, a determined look on her face that was just adorable to see considering what they were talking about.

“If YoungBae stops sulking, I’m fine.” Her smile was almost enough to distract everyone from the fact that the honorifics from YoungBae’s name was dropped.

The four were shocked – along with some of the staff that’s gotten to know just how formal the girl was – but YoungBae took it for granted and just shrugged, sitting to the loveseat next to the two and taking her hand to – finally, in his mind – pull her off Jae Hyun’s lap.

She made no fuss about it as she moved quite willingly until he situated her next to him – the others looking on with amused interest.

“I don’t sulk.” YoungBae denied, even though it was clear on his voice that he was probably still sulking – the small giggle she released just affirmed it too.

“Sure you don’t.” She agreed, the honorifics to her sentences now seemingly only added so that she could talk to him like he was a child she was humoring. “And Jae Hyun didn’t mean what he said about SeungHyun-ssi at all earlier.” She rolled her eyes here affectionately, pointedly ignoring how said idol was now blushing while looking at her friend with wide eyes.

Said friend just winked at him before taking his phone out. “Anytime you’re ready handsome.” He nonchalantly announced – ignoring SeungRi snickering at how red SeungHyun got when he did.

“So,” SeungHyun’s voice cracked a bit when he said that, forcing him to clear his throat and suppress the need to strangle Big Bang’s two youngest members when they started just outright laughing at him. “How was your flight here?”

Azalea suppressed another giggle when Jae Hyun didn’t even let her open before answering. “Exhausting!” Exasperated roll of eyes here before sitting up in the recliner. “Let me tell you, those two just wouldn’t STOP TEXTING!” He yelled at the two next to him – who, the other’s found with amusement, were actually ignoring them now, lost in their own world as they resumed whatever conversation they were having through texts earlier.

“I wanted to catch even just half an hour of sleep while in the plane.” Jae Hyun continued, finally putting his phone away to look at the flustered SeungHyun in the eye. “But no! Even when I went to the other room, I still heard her giggling and laughing, and that ANNOYING RINGTONE-” that was clearly aimed at the girl, but she didn’t notice him at all, still lost in her conversation with YoungBae “-can probably go through walls cause I kept hearing it! Ugh!” he made to sound it as if he was mad about the whole thing, but the fond look in his eyes as he looked at Azalea laughing with YoungBae kinda drowned it.

“So you suffered like we did, huh?” DaeSung asked dryly. “The entire time they were away, we got the same thing while preparing for this.” He informed the interested man. “There was a time when we were rehearsing our dancing, and he still had the phone in his hand – and if you think a ringtone sounds annoying when it rings over and over in a plane, imagine just how annoying it is when it rings in an arena and it ECHOES.” Their second youngest groaned before slipping backwards in his seat.

“OK…” SeungHyun looked at the two, clearly exhausted about their friend males with amusement before clearing his throat with more grace than before – their outbursts giving him time to collect himself from Jae Hyun’s teasing. “That’s good to know and all, but I was asking Azalea?”

Girl was still stuck in her convo – earlier mention of getting lost in their own world? It was happening again. Except worse cause they were actually looking into each other’s eyes now and talking all quietly as if they were trading secrets.

“Don’t bother.” Jae Hyun rolled his eyes, waving the attention away from the two. “You guys probably don’t know this because you MUST have a life besides just Big Bang, but I spend every hour of the day with that girl.” He informed them. “They don’t just text, they also do phone calls and video chats – depends on whether or not he’s in the country. And once that starts, I go through hell and back trying to remind her she needs to have lunch.”

“They’ve called each other?” DaeSung was surprised, looking at the two still lost in each other – just what was it they were talking about that made them ignore everyone anyways? “Is that how they can finally look at each other in the eye without resembling a tomato?” He asked.

“That and she’s actually dropped honorifics with him now.” Nodded Jae Hyun. “From what I recall, it was just a couple days ago that that happened. It took quite a lot of insisting on ‘Bae’s’ part to get her to do it.” He rolled his eyes at the nickname.

“‘Bae’?” JiYong repeated, amusement coloring his tone.

“That, or ‘Babe’, I don’t really care.”

“Babe?!” Gasped DaeSung. “Are they together now?!”

Jae Hyun didn’t get to answer as the door suddenly opened, revealing 2ne1 – now finished with their stages.

“Hey, guys…”  they greeted one by one, a smile on their sweat ridden face – before quickly being replaced by confusion when seeing Azalea and Jae Hyun, then by recognition when they saw YoungBae right there as well, laughing with her.

“This must be Azalea-ssi?” Bom inquired, a teasing smile already on her face as the two – finally – stopped their conversation to look at the girls with small surprise – they weren’t expecting them, clearly.

“Oh?” YoungBae was the first to speak up. “2ne1’s done from their stage?” He looked at his watch with barely hidden surprise when he realized just how long they’ve been talking. “Why didn’t anyone tell us it’s been near half an hour?” He demanded from s, actually having the nerve to glare at them accusingly.

“Don’t look at us like that!” JiYong nearly smacked him. “DaeSung and Jae Hyun has actually been yelling accusations of you guys calling and video chatting added to your constant text – that we didn’t know about by the way” cue accusatory glare here “and you guys didn’t even flinch from your conversation! Just what are you talking about to get so lost in it?” He asked, getting Azalea’s attention when he did.

Azalea just looked at YoungBae before shrugging as if to say ‘tell him, that’s not my job, is it?’ before looking at 2ne1 again with wide eyes.

“You tell him!” YoungBae suddenly voiced, poking Azalea at the side.

Azalea rolled her eyes at him – which, again, shocked the hell out of the others considering they just couldn’t picture her doing that before. “Either you’re lazy or you’re too embarrassed about what we’re talking about.” She guessed.

“That and I have the tendency to go on and on about a topic.” He agreed, avoiding the slap she sent his way.

“You’re embarrassed?!” She yelled/pouted.

“…” He looked at her pout with wide eyes before shrugging. “Just tell them – at this point, I’ll probably forget some parts too, and you’ll end up yelling at me again with a smack.”

He got another smack for that one before she turned around with a raised hand.

“First we were talking about that new restaurant I tried in Gangnam – the food was great, and the staffs were nice.” She started ticking off on her fingers one by one. “Next we talked about his sleeping habits when he’s working – it’s gotten really out of hand how late he sleeps. Then we talked about that new book I wanted to him to read – I loved it, and I want to talk with someone about it too, but he’s too lazy to read it.” Insert small accusatory glare towards YoungBae here – boy just shrugged it off. “Finally, he tried convincing me not to buy this dress I really wanted to buy from France but go for the one from New York instead.” She finished off with a smile before looking at 2ne1 again – who, by this time, were wearing amused, and kinda shell-shocked look on their faces.

A moment of silence passed, the occupants of the room either too busy being shocked, being amused, or staring at the new group she could see up close in real life, before SeungRi decided to break it.

“So…” He started, scratching his head in thought at the new information he just got. “You were basically talking about nothing important?”

“No, it was important.” YoungBae disagreed. “The dress she wanted from France wasn’t that great to look at – the skirt was too short – but the one from New York was more elegant – at least in my eyes.” Is it bad that he was completely serious about this?

“So, nothing, hyung…” DaeSung dryly commented, looking to the side with an exasperated look. “With the way you guys were talking earlier, we thought you were discussing ways to take over the world or something – Jae Hyun and I were practically yelling at you.”

“Yelling?” that took Azalea’s attention, turning in her seat to look at her best friend – who was lost in his phone again, completely ignorant of the new addition to the room. “Why were you yelling at us?”

“I really hate that ringtone of yours, sweetie.” Came the dry reply, not even bothering to look up from his phone.

“Who are you texting?” apparently, that explanation was enough cause this was Azalea’s next question.

“Jae-hyung!” He answered with a smile. “He’s bored right now, so am I, he texted, I replied – simple really.” He shrugged.

“Are you guys actually gonna greet us anytime soon?” CL asked, a very amused smile on her face as she looked at the exhausted Big Bang – they’ve about had it with YoungBae – the boy who barely considered them, and the girl who kept looking at them as if they were mirages.

“Sorry, sorry…” JiYong stepped up. “Come on in – yes, that’s Azalea, that’s her best friend over there – Jae Hyun. Yes, he’s the guy YoungBae’s been jealous of and the reason as to why SeungHyun still has a small blush on his face.” He said this after seeing Bom’s questioning second glance at the boy. “And yes, he’s foreign – half American, I think.”

“So why is SeungHyun-oppa blushing because of him?” Minzy asked, amusement practically blooming in her eyes when said oppa just blushed some more when she did.

“I accused him.” Jae Hyun – now apparently done conversing with ‘Jae-hyung’ – answered. “I accused him of being the main cause of many of my sleepless nights and demanded compensation.” The straight face he used while answering just made DaeSung and SeungRi at the background snicker loudly.

“Sleepless nights?” Dara giggled.

“Yes!” Exaggerated look here, along with the point of moving his hand to his head as if he was about to faint. “Ever since I saw him at that fan meeting, my days and nights have been plagued with thoughts of him! Please save me.” He said the last part in such monotone while turning around to put his legs over one arm of the recliner that Azalea started giggling again.

“Are you gonna do this each time you visit backstage with her?” SeungHyun asked with a dreadful tone – which set off SeungRi’s snickering again.

“Don’t worry,” Jae Hyun smiled at him before turning to smirk at SeungRi. “Next time, I’ll go for the maknae – he’s quite handsome now that I think about it.” Victorious grin when SeungRi abruptly stopped snickering before shrugging. “Mind you, I usually don’t go for younger guys, but he could be my exception.” The last part was accompanied with a wink at the half amused, half horrified look SeungRi gave him.

“You’re gay?” Dara asked, kinda shocked – he was very cute, and well…we all know Dara’s been looking for a bf for quite some time now.

“What was your first clue, pretty girl?” Jae Hyun turned around to the blushing Dara.

“OK, that’s enough.” JiYong said. “Jae Hyun-ssi, please stop making my members blush like a teenager, Azalea-ssi, stop gaping at 2ne1 – yes, that is them, yes, they’re real – and for you guys…” he looked at 2ne1 at this time. “What are you doing here anyways?”

“We heard that the girl who’s been making YoungBae look like he was floating was here today – we kinda wanted to meet her.” Bom answered with a shrug before stepping up to the now gaping Azalea. “Hi, I’m Bom!”

“Ah!” She scrambled to stand here before bowing properly. “Hello, I’m Cesari Azalea – it’s nice to meet you.” There’s the formal girl they met.

“No need to be so formal – just call me unni!” Bom smiled, taking an immediate liking towards the younger girl.

“Good luck with that, noona.” DaeSung drawled. “It’s been more than 2 months since we’ve met her and she still uses formal language with us.”

“The only one she uses informal language is YoungBae here,” SeungHyun said, nodding towards said boy. “But that’s only because they’ve been conversing non-stop since they exchanged numbers.”

“Are you guys dating?” Minzy – bless her, JiYong silently thinks – was blunt about it – enough to make the two blush.

“N-no…” Azalea denied, avoiding to look into YoungBae’s eyes now by looking down with a blush.

“Really?” Jae Hyun turned a sarcastic look at her. “Cause from how you were complaining to me about ‘Bae’s deplorable sleeping and eating habits’ just a couple nights ago, I’d rather think otherwise.” The fond look in his eyes appeared again when she just stuttered and blushed deeper.

JiYong’s starting to think that the boy’s personality could be narrowed down to two points – sarcastic, blunt with a dry tone, or caring and fondness for her.

“You worried about me?”

Way to make yourself obvious YoungBae-ah… JiYong thought dryly – hope practically dripped from his tone.

“Well…” Azalea was surprised, looking at the hopeful look in YoungBae’s face before sighing with a nod. “You’ve been skipping dinner and you barely get enough sleep – I get that your next album is important, but you can’t ignore your health over it.” She argued, her voice getting louder as she kept going.

“Are you SURE you’re not dating?” Minzy asked again, an eyebrow raised. “You sounded like a worried girlfriend just now.”

“We’re not dating!” YoungBae clarified.

…

…

…

Just yet anyways…

ooOO**OOoo

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~Siblings-Curse