pranks

There was always one topic that couldn’t be left out when girls were gathering. The topic which Jung Eunji shyly tried to avoid, but their friends always had their way to push this lead female to spill everything out. They didn’t even care even though her flushing cheeks strongly disagreed to continue it.

Boyfriend. Or to be precise, her boyfriend, Jung Eunji’s newest boyfriend. What an interesting topic, wasn’t it? Who wanted to miss this topic if the reporters couldn’t even touch this?! It was the freshest, the newest information from this main vocal of Apink.

Lee Yejin’s mischievous grin lingered, both elbows were on the table, hand cupped together supporting the girl’s chin. Eyes sparkling, expecting a cheesy story she wanted to experience someday. And sitting next to her, Lee Jieun had been waiting for certain answer from her best friend while biting her nail impatiently. The busy eating Amber Liu couldn’t help but stop what her doing, she had to do some voluntary acts like, elbowing Jung Eunji who seemed trying to ignore the question.

“What?”

See! She played a sudden innocent person.

“Tell us about him, aigoo. I know you listen to me, now answer! And stop blushing!” Jieun burst out, she ended up giggling, mocking the embarrassing girl in front of her.

“I think I blush as hard as her, right Jieun-ah?” added Yejin.

“Him .. wh ..”

“Kang Minhyuk, of course! Stop hiding him!” Again Jieun couldn’t stop herself from being patient.

Eunji couldn’t help but laughing, utterly shy just from hearing his name. And it had strongly affected her heart beat. The sudden picture of her boyfriend greeted her brain, and she couldn’t help but forming a small smile along with a flush on her white cheeks.

“Yah! Look at her!” Yejin squirmed, couldn’t handle the sudden changed look on Eunji’s face. “She must be so in love … ugh … I want a boyfriend too!”

Again Jung Eunji only left laughing, trying her best to cover her shyness. She sipped her warm tea before Jieun continued pushing her to answer their question.

“Come on Ji! We’re waiting.”

“Yah! Just share it to them!” Amber again elbowed the blushing Eunji.

“What? What should I share? You don’t even have specific question, what do you expect from me?!” With a cute pout Eunji folded her arms in front of her chest.

“How he asked you out? I want to know this …”

Amber growled appreciating Jieun’s smart brain.

Eunji giggled next, “you really want to know?”

“Yes!” the three best friends together harmonized their shout.

_____

Buzzzzz ... buzzzzz … buzzzzz …

Eunji had to frown for two seconds. An unknown number. Could it be another sasaeng fan? She thought. But it could be also from her new program’s production team? Yes, technically she was waiting a call from a certain production team who asked her for an appearance.

“Hallo ..?” hesitantly she picked up the call, which next was greeted by a shout.

“HYUNG! YAH!”

“Yah! She picks up! She picks up!”

She frowned. She had to push away her phone a little farther. Was it really a sasaeng fan? Now she was getting scared.

“YONGHWA HYUNG! GIVE MY PHONE BACK! HYUNG!”

“Hallo, Eunji-ssi? Are you listening? Someone has desperately wanted to talk to you.”

“DAMN YOU, HYUNG!”

Yonghwa hyung? Was it that Yonghwa? Hearing a familiar name, she then back to her phone, “y-yes .. Who is this?”

“This is Jung Yonghwa, here, I’ll give the phone to that person! He’s a little bit shy but ..”

“Hallo, Eunji-ya ..”

“Junghyun-ah, he called her Eunji-ya?! EUNJI-YAAA!”

“SHUT UP HYUNG!”

It was a mess, really. And Eunji had been clueless listening to the chaos from the other line. Her brain still tried to figure the things out. But it seemed quite difficult. Of course she didn’t expect that person Yonghwa mentioned was indeed that person. It couldn’t be … right?

She heard such glorious laugh after. And it affected her lips to form a small curl, even though she didn’t understand what had been happening. Could it be really that person ...?

“Eunji-ya I’m sorry, Yonghwa hyung and Junghyun hyung have been playing my phone. And then they found your number. I didn’t know that they have this silly joke. I’m sorry for disturbing you. You can continue ..”

“Minhyuk .. oppa?”

Now she caught it. It was really him. Her smile got longer then. And the moment she said his name, two busy persons next to her decided to stop what their doing and glued their gaze into her.

“Y-yes, h-hi!” he stuttered. And Eunji needed to stop herself from giggling. “I’m sorry for disturbing you, you can continue what you’re doing. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not doing anything, actually.”

Yoon Bomi had just elbowed her best friend along with an audible ‘who is he?’ Eunji though only sent her a soft smile instead of answering her question.

“How’d you doing, oppa? It’s been a month, right?” the girl smartly opened up the gate for him.

And yes, it had been a month since the last time they met. They had an MC-ing program a month ago. For a short period they had been really close. But then, after the project finished, their story had seemed finished as well, at least on her theory. But with this sudden call from him, well let’s call it that way, it seemed their story had just begun.  

Without her knowing, he was somehow relieved. His breath back into the normal rhythm. Thanks to his hyungs he had almost lost his breath.

“I’m fine. And you? I heard you’re going to make a comeback.”

“Yes, we’re currently preparing for it.”

“Really? It’s nice to know that,” he smiled before his phone. It seemed things moved smoothly after.

And with that the talk lingered, so did their smile. It remained long on their face. Both Bomi and Chorong decided to leave her since thirty minutes ago. They chose to question her later. Her smile had somehow told them a meaningful story behind it. And they knew at this state, this girl wouldn’t care more about their presence.

“I wish we can meet up, someday ..” he stopped then, blaming his careless thought.

Did Minhyuk oppa has just asked me out?

Eunji was silent after. Thinking, expecting, considering any possible meaning behind his sentence. And she got a shy chuckle from him. What was it?

“It might sound stupid. But .. can we really meet again, someday?” Minhyuk sounded more confident this time. And it successfully affected her smile to rise again.

“I’m free this weekend, oppa.”

“Weekend sounds good!”

“So .. this weekend?”

“So, this weekend.”

_____

“Gosh!”

“Really?!”

“That was .. woah!”

“You’re exaggerating!” Eunji slurped her tea again, which had been getting cold. But then, her smile formed again.

She really thanked Yonghwa for mischievously called her that day. If only he hadn’t done that, Minhyuk and she wouldn’t be able to be who they were right now.

“Now, I hate the way you smile!” Jieun changed her earlier curious attitude into whining session. She earned a giggle from Eunji then.

“What’s wrong with my smile?” she challenged her best friend back, “you asked me, and I just answered.” Her grin went higher into a winning smirk, “Let’s not talk about this then ..”

“No, no, I still want to know,” Yejin said.

“Seriously, guys. Does our meet up change its purpose? Why we’re only talking about me?”

“Because, that’s indeed our point..” Amber replied, putting down her fork, “.. so, do you really .. like him?”

“YAH!” she just earned a light smack from Yejin, “don’t ask something too easy like that. It’s embarrassing!”

“Wae? It’s fun, though! Look at her, she blushing so hard right away!” Amber chuckled, satisfied enough with her brilliant question, “see, this is getting more than fun, eonni!”

“Eunji-ya, how much you like him?” Jieun added, and now getting excited again.

“No no no, answer my question first! Do you really like him? I mean .. you know, not just that kind of like, but .. the deepest one .. love? Aha! Right! Do you love him?”

It wasn’t an end yet, but the way she flushed had been reaching her limit. Jung Eunji hadn’t known meeting her best friends required such heat inside her body. Both her ears got warmer from each question. And it only gave them a reason to embarrass her more.

She took a slice of her pancake, thinking of an answer.

“I ..”

“Huhum?”

“I .. actually don’t know,” she grinned next.

“What?!”

“What does that mean?”

“You mean you don’t know your own feeling?”

“Yah, then why you date him?”

“This ..,” she started again, “this cannot be explained with simply, yes I love him .. it’s complicated, it’s strange, being with him .. it’s just .. right and .. what with that smile? I cringe every time you three make that similar evil smile! I’m not continuing this!”

“… and?”

“And what honey?”

There was always some moments in life when people wanted to just disappear. This moment was an example for Eunji. Her cheeks were burning so bad, but her friends didn’t much care about it. Their eyes sparkled, enjoying every time Eunji blushing, flushing, and getting cutely mad, even her embarrassing chuckle sounded so cute to be laughed at. Teasing this girl was way much interesting than a mere funny TV program.

“When did you realize you .. fall for him?”

“You really drive me crazy .. I swear, I’ll make revenge someday!”

“Noted that! Now answer!”

“How I suppose to answer that question. That feeling just came, and is it even possible to remember when it came? You know, it’s just .. came.”

“But I remember when I fell for Hyunwoo. The memory stays in my head. I remember every single moment, every single thing we did, every single word we said. Don’t you have that kind of memory? The special memory which always comes every time you hear his name, every time he calls your name.”

“Jieun is right,” Amber added, “it might not something fancy but I think when that feeling came, we know that it .. came!”

“When it came ..?”

“Yes!”

Eunji looked up into the cream ceiling, recalling the special memory when she fell for him. The memory which always came every time she heard his name was mentioned, every time he called her name. The memory which gave her lips a reason to curl into a thin and lovely smile.

“… I think,” and her smile indeed had just formed. So thin, yet contained by such deep meaning.

And the three girls unconsciously reciprocated her smile.

____

In the busy hallway of a foreign building Eunji walked into a certain room. Eyes focused on papers on her hand. She had a first meeting today for a music festival which she would become one of its MC. An eonni from the team production told her to stay at the meet up room first while they waited for the others MC to come. Literally she was half an hour too early for the meeting. But being a dedicated artist she was, it didn’t matter much for this girl. She though had no other schedule for today.

Is this the room? Standing in front of a closed grey door, she wondered. Eyes studied its sign, the team production eonni said the room was labeled as Meeting Room III. And it had indeed that label. Hesitantly she grabbed the door knob and opened it next.

As expected the room was .. empty. No, it wasn’t empty. She was supposed to be the first one, according to that eonni. But there was another person inside the room, a guy, she guessed. He was sitting and leaning his back into a cream couch, arms folded in front of his chest, a knit scarf covered his neck to his nose, it hid almost half of his face. And he was .. sleeping silently.

Eunji walked to that couch, carefully stepping the floor. Once she reached the couch, again she carefully moved. She sat on the other side while eyes lingered onto the quiet guy which she couldn’t guess his name.

She actually knew she would work along with two more artists. But she hadn’t learnt yet who they would be. She missed the information when his manager about to tell her. She though hadn’t much care about it as her focus was always work professionally, whoever her partner would be.

But that sleeping guy had affected her brain to take a short note. He somehow looked unfamiliar for her knowledge. She guessed, she hadn’t worked with him before. Yes, working with new people was something ordinary for her, but this moment was an exception, she was curious.

He had a long messy bang which helped his scarf to cover his face. He was so quiet, and it was strange remembering how noisy the way she slept. Her lips curled thinly for recalling that embarrassing behavior. His attire was all black, his coat was, his scarf was, his boot was, his backpack was, even his hair also dyed black. It was all her favorite. Again her small grin formed.

“What am I even doing?” she muttered, somehow felt stupidly strange for studying a stranger – let’s call him that way until she learnt his name.

Eunji then chose to back to her papers, preparing herself for the meeting. She was about to read the first line when the sleeping guy moved a little bit, and it had invited her attention. No, she didn’t have this kind of expectation. Slowly, very slowly his eyes opened up. It met her unguarded gaze. Frozen, was the next thing happened.

He blinked, hadn’t moved more. She blinked, did nothing necessary.

At this kind of situation her brain normally sent her a sign to form a smile, at least the thin one. It often helped her to adjust the situation. And she did it too today, smiling voluntary, greeting t