chapter eighteen: xviii. family visits

“Who’s at your house right now?” I screeched, unable to process what I had just heard and learned.

“Your brother. He didn’t even call me beforehand, how rude—” Jungkook’s voice came from my phone, being interrupted by someone else.

“YOUR FACE IS RUDE!” Yup. He was like the male version of me… just smarter. Meet my older brother, Kim Namjoon.

In fact, the way that Jungkook and his ex-boyfriend had first met was through my brother. My brother had a little band, and Taehyung had been one of the guitarists and vocals. Though he also played alto sax. I had taken Jungkook to once of their concerts and bam, it was love. Until it wasn’t, that was. Eventually, Jungkook and I had joined the band (in attempt to get Jungkook closer to Taehyung), and Jungkook became the main vocal and visual and I became the keyboardist/guitarist/vocal/visual. Actually, Jungkook and my brother were close friends, too. He’d always come over to my house and it’d be the three of us, chilling out. That was why there’d been almost no problem with us joining the band when two of the members decided to drop out. The band eventually became something essential to us. We’d been a six member band called BTS, and they would not tell me the reason for the name. Of course, after Hoseok was found to be cheating on me he was kicked out of the band and we became a five member band. Jin ahjumma had been our mascot, always making cookies at our practices.

“Wait he didn’t even tell me! Why’s he here? Who paid for his plane ticket? What about his job? What the is happening right now?”

“Here, let me put him on,” Jungkook said, escaping from my wrath.

“Yo, sis.”

“DON’T YO SIS ME!!! SPILL. Why are you here? How did you get here? What are you thinking, leaving mom alone? Who paid for the plane ticket? How about your job? How about mom? How’s she doing? Also—”

“Mom’s at aunt’s place. Aunt paid for the tickets, and I’m using my vacation days for this. Mom’s doing fine, but she missed you and aunt, so I decided to ask aunt as a favour. Also, what are these twelve boys I’m hearing about? Do I need to beat the sh*t out of them and teach them a lesson?”

I took a deep breath, massaging my forehead with one hand to get my head straight. “Wait wait wait… let me think a bit… so you’re saying that you made aunt pay again? You know she’s paying for my tuition too! Why are you—”

“Well I couldn’t exactly ing let mom come alone, and I knew that she needed to come. She needs to visit her other family too. And hey, she only paid partially. I paid for most of it.”

“Which you could have conveniently told me when I asked you in the first place.” I sighed. “I can only meet you guys at lunch times, or Sunday or Saturday. How about this Saturday?”

“That sounds good. But you still haven’t told me about the twelve boys Cee’s been talking about. Cee says they’re all cute.”

“Hey, you know what? I’ll bring some of them along and make them pay for the meal,” I said, grinning at the thought. But then again… that might not be so much of a great idea. Especially if my mom was going to be there. “But I’mma meet mom on a different day… not with them there, that’s for sure.”

“Are they your slaves or something, I swear.” He chuckled. “The way you get guys... First, you only attract gay guys, and now, you’re attracting a crowd of guys.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “And hey, save one of them for Cee, he’s been heartbroken after breaking up with Taehyung.”

“No, none of them are his type,” I said defensively.

Why did I have to have a brother who was so d*mn smart? “So you like them, right? All of them? That, sis, could prove to be a big problem.”

I sighed. “I know, bro, I know.”

“YOUR OPPA?? OH NO, WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO WEAR?”

I sighed. “It’s okay, Tao. My oppa has absolute no fashion sense… even if you were wearing a paper bag, he wouldn’t have any right to call you out on it.”

“But if I was wearing a paper bag he’d get a bad first impression on me!” Tao wailed. “If I’m going to marry you I need him to like me!”

“WHO SAID YOU WERE MARRYING HER?!” Eleven furious voices roared. Well, probably not eleven. I doubted Junmyeon or Yixing had spoken. But it was not like I could count and see who had said it.

“Yeah, who said you were marrying me?” I asked, rolling my eyes at him.

“You, in the future,” said Tao, smirking at me.

“In your dreams,” Chanyeol sniffed, clutching me protectively to him.

“It’s this Saturday. If you want to come, come.” Then, I turned to Junmyeon. “JUNMYEON OPPA PLEASE COME!” I did my best puppy dog eyes.

“Of course I’m coming! Your oppa needs to meet a civilized person, not one of these… things.” Junmyeon stared blatantly at the rest of them.

“Did you just call me a thing, hyung?” Kyungsoo glowered.

“Well, I was more like referring to the Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Tao, Sehun, Kai, oh, and Kris hyung, but if you want to be a thing you can always be a thing.” Junmyeon smiled sweetly at him, before turning back to me. “Anyway, of course I’m coming. And um… it’s casual wear, right?”

I sighed exasperatedly. “My oppa’s probably going to come in his boxers or something! It’s totally casual, okay? Just wear what you normal-" I glanced at his button down, before sighing. “Yeah, just wear what you normally wear. It doesn’t really matter, anyway. And… who else is coming, then?”

“Is that even a question? I’m coming,” said Minseok.

“Me too.”

“Me three.”

“Me four.”

“Me five.”

“Me six.”

“Me seven.”

“Me eight.”

“Me nine.”

“Me ten.”

“Me eleven.”

“So… how did ‘I’ll bring some of them along and make them pay for the meal’ become ‘I’m bringing all of them?’” Namjoon was staring intently at all of them, giving them the one over. It was clear that he was trying to intimidate them, and not that he was actually checking them out. To be honest, he was bi… he had a thing for one of our band members, Yoongi (who was like that one brother you’re always arguing with to me), but the fact that he had a thing for girls too was obvious by the magazines and tapes that I’d found under his bed.

While Jungkook’s protectiveness was going over to them and threatening them straight out, his protectiveness was… he’d intimidate them, and see if he could scare them away. From his logic, if they ran away from me because they were scared of him, they weren’t good enough anyway. But if they stayed after the intimidation test, as I liked to call it, he’d be totally buddy buddy with them afterwards.

Poor boys. They had no idea what they were about to go through.

“Let’s eat!” I said cheerily, in an attempt to brighten the mood.

“The food’s not even here yet, Joo.” Namjoon rolled his eyes at me.

“Why’s Jungkook oppa not here, again?” I sighed.

“He doesn’t want to see my face, apparently.”

“Understandable,” I said, chortling.

“HEY!”

I smiled angelically at him. “What can I say? Living with you for… I don’t even know how long… it’s been a toll to my eyesight.”

“Look who’s talking!”

“But Jooeun’s beautiful,” Yixing pointed out.

Namjoon narrowed his eyes at him, but Yixing didn’t flinch. “Are you saying that I’m ugly?”

Yixing shook his head. “You’re not ugly. I would say you’re average, maybe a bit over?”

Namjoon liked blunt people. But he wouldn’t show that until later. I could see him calculating things about how he was going to carry this out, smiling inside about how he liked this one. Obviously, who could not like Yixing?

Namjoon stood up threateningly, cracking his knuckles.

“Ah look, it’s the food!” I said, knowing that his acting could go too far sometimes. And this time, the food actually had come.

We were at the bibimbap place that we had been at when we’d met Taeyeon.

We all took our food. “So… oppa, tell me how the unbreakable Vee and Cee broke up,” I changed the subject.

“Well… someone was added to the equation. Gee.”

I blinked. “Gee? Are you serious?”

“You know Park Jimin, one of our members who left before you and Cee joined? Back in the Hoseok days? Well he became D*MN y. Like his abs are actually so on point.”

I gave a pointed glance to him. “Oppa, sometimes I question your uality. Oh wait-you’re bi. Sorry, I always forget. And yes, I remember him.”

“Yeah, whatever. And he took a liking to how Taehyung looked now, which, you know, is kind of obvious since Taehyung’s become pretty cute. And Taehyung started to like him too—” Namjoon had a tendency to tell a story with his face, and right now, everyone was watching him animatedly.

“WAIT are you telling me that Taehyung oppa CHEATED on him? Where the hell is he I need to give him a beating.”

“No no no no no no, Taehyung wouldn’t do that. He stayed in their relationship because he felt responsible… but Jungkook saw that Taehyung wasn’t really in love with him anymore, you know? And Jungkook, being the wonderful guy he is, didn’t want to hold him back, as much as he loved him. So he broke up with him, lying to Taehyung and saying that he didn’t feel the connection anymore. Then, Taehyung got with Jimin a month later. But hey, don’t hate on Jimin, he’s not actually such a bad guy.”

“Wait, what did you say Taehyung’s last name was?” Baekhyun asked, face whitening.

“He’s Kim Taehyung,” I said. “Why?”

“And his boyfriend was Park Jimin, right? Oh, kill me now.”

“What?” I asked.

“Kim Taehyung happens to be my cousin. And I’ve actually met Park Jimin.”

I snapped my fingers. “THAT’S WHY YOU LOOKED FAMILIAR WHEN I FIRST MET YOU! Because you’re Taehyung oppa’s cousin! D*mn it, why didn’t I realize how much you looked like Taehyung oppa before?”

Namjoon stared at him. “I don’t see the resemblance.”

“Oppa, you’re just blind. Guys look,” I took out my phone and found a picture of Taehyung and Jungkook that I had taken a long time ago, “this is Taehyung. Doesn’t he look almost exactly like Baek oppa?”

They peered at my phone.

“In some aspects, but not in others,” Luhan observed.

“What he said,” said Sehun, nodding in agreement.

“Don’t they look so happy together?” I asked, sighing. “They were my OTP.”

The others shot weird looks at me.

Namjoon, Kyungsoo, and Junmyeon spoke at the same time, “One true pairing.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” Tao whined.

“The I will sink with this ship ship,” I said grinning.

“Speak in… Korean?” Chanyeol suggested.

“It’s too hard to explain,” said Junmyeon, sighing. “Just google it when we get back.”

My phone buzzed, and I saw that it was a text from none other than… Namjoon. Who was right across from me. I rolled my eyes at him, and he just smiled cheekily.

There are way too many of them!! How am I supposed to intimidate all of them at once?? Help me out, sis?

I quickly texted him back.

First of all, no. Second of all, no.

Hey, why would I want to intimidate them in the first place?

And it’s not my fault I have so many suitors, RM.

I smirked cheekily at him. Kris looked over my shoulder to read the texts. He raised an eyebrow, before pointing at my untouched bibimbap. “It’s getting cold, you should eat it quickly.”

I smiled. “Okay.”

I shoved my bibimbap over to my brother, and he took it and started mixing it. He’d always mixed everything—whether it was bibimbap, spaghetti, or jjajangmyun—for me. I’d grown up as a kind of pampered sister, despite the fact that we bickered so much. It was through actions like these that he showed his love for me, and not through words.

“Thanks oppa,” I beamed at him when he shoved it back to me, and I started eating like a madman. “You guys eat too. Stop talking so much!”

Junmyeon was trying to explain to Chanyeol and Tao what OTP meant. He was way too soft, our leader.

The meal ended faster than I thought it would. Namjoon looked at me expectantly, waiting for one of them to pay. He hadn’t even come with the intention of paying. I shook my head at him, rolling my eyes and tsking him.

“Jun oppa~” I practically sang, putting as much as aegyo as I could into my voice. “You know that if you spell your name in English, it’s J-U-N-M-Y-E-O-N?”

He nodded slowly, not really sure what I was getting at. Namjoon’s eyes glinted, understanding what I was doing. Not 148 IQ for nothing. I bet if he took the IQ test again, it’d be at least 155 now.

“Well, if you mix around some of the letters, it becomes… J-U-N-M-O-N-E-Y… Junmoney!!! And since you’re so rich and all, can you pay for this meal? Pweaseeeee?” I grimaced inwardly at myself, banging my head against my stone heart. Ha.

The others burst out laughing, and Junmyeon looked like he didn’t know if he was supposed to laugh or cry. Instead, he smiled. “You owe me, though.”

I beamed. “Thank you, oppa!”

“Joo Joo, show us your aegyo again! I think it almost beats Tao’s!”

A/N: Just a cute chapter that gives us a bit of a rest from all the angst... hope you liked! :)

~Jinny out