Turning Point

Happy belated birthday, Daehyun! I love you UB :')

What happened on Friday is fuzzy now, but I remember it like the social suicide it was.

Mitsuki and I were discussing bands: Korean, Japanese, American, Australian, British ones. We were navigating our way between the maze of tables in the cafeteria, almost half filled up with the right amount of people since said people tend to take a while before coming to eat (for some inhumane reason).

I had to alternate between looking back at Mitsuki when she was talking and looking down to see where I was going so I wouldn’t trip over misshapen steps.

“But isn’t it amazing when Korean idols cover the songs of American bands?” Mitsuki had exclaimed at one point.

I felt a sort of rush because I thought that was pretty super cool, so I looked at her and beamed, “They always have that cute Korean acce-“

“Accent” is what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t because I slammed right into two people.

“My shirt! My designer shoes!” A girl shrieked, her voice was so high pitched I wanted to yell right back at her to shut up.

But Oh my God, Oh my God. Oh. My. God.

It’s Yuri, and Jung Daehyun, and I just spilled the Italian Special all over our feet (Spaghetti and meatballs, extra sauce).

But it wasn’t just on Yuri’s shirt or shoes, she had sauce in the tips of her hair, sprinkled on her forearms and stained on her black pants.

I looked up nervously at them. Daehyun was just stunned, and looking at me like he wanted to recognize me from somewhere, but he couldn’t, like: Wow, who is this girl to have the nerve?

And Yuri had a murderous look, steaming with anger and embarrassment.

“I’m s-sorry, here I’ll get you some napkins.” I reach for napkins at a nearby table, flustered by their popular people eyes on me, always so intense and model-like. I’m a flail of arms and shaky fingers as I hand Yuri some napkins and try to wipe the bottom of her white shirt. Just great, today I die.

Yuri glowers even more at my attempts, like: , are you trying to touch me now. She yanks the napkins from my hand and throws them angrily on the ground with her lunch.

“You think ‘sorry’ and a few napkins can bring my shoes back? Or the oil off of my skin? What were you thinking!” I bite my lip. Each of her words are like a punch, and I flinch accordingly.

“Did you bump into us on purpose?” Daehyun peers at me, the first thing he’s said. What a jerk!

My eyes widen. “Of course not!” I exclaim.

“You’re such a scheming liar! You probably did this to ruin my day! Are you one of Daehyun’s fanclub members, is that why you did this?” Yuri’s so fast to accuse me, I barely have time to breathe or think.

Then, I forget Mitsuki was there too. I wasn’t alone. I was like a statue, but the only sounds I made were short syllables and broken vowel sounds. Of course I didn’t do this on purpose!?

Mitsuki and her short, brown curled hair self, pushed me back and got in between the couple and I, arms stretched out so they wouldn’t hurt me.

“It was an accident, she was talking to me and she couldn’t see where she was going. Calm down, Yuri, okay? And Daehyun, please don’t tell me you’re serious. A person can’t possibly be that conceded!”

Daehyun smirks and shrugs. The nerve. He looks at me up and down from behind Mitsuki, like he’s still trying to recognize me.

Yuri stomps her feet and whines, “She should have watched where she was going! These are my favorite pants!” She nearly slips from the sauce on the ground, and Daehyun catches her before she can, hand on her waist, and staring right down at her. Yuri seems to hold her breath and there’s adoration written in her eyes as she holds onto Daehyun’s other hand.

Gag, mine and Mitsuki’s job here is done.

With her eyes, Mitsuki tells me ‘Let’s get outta here’ and we both giggle as she drags me away from them.

They must have snapped out of their spaghetti love gaze, because as we’re about to turn the corner to a different hallway, I can hear Yuri scream, “I’m not finished with you yet! Get back here!”

We pick up our speed, like criminals escaping a crime scene. I see one of Daehyun’s table friends and grab them by the collar.

“Hey, there’s an accident in the lunch room, call a lunch lady, will you?” I don’t wait for a response, or even if they got the hint that it had to do with Daehyun, because Mitsuki pulls me away, laughing some more.

“Did you see the look on their faces!” She beams once we are a safe distance away from the cafeteria.

“Yeah.” I breathe out. This is still so unbelievable. Mitsuki is looking at me with appreciation in her eyes but all I can feel is regret in the pit of my stomach. Thank God it’s Friday.

♬ ♬ ♬

Yongguk latches unto Himchan and exclaims, “Take him not me, he’s pretty!” in his sleep.

When he pulled Himchan closer to him, I banged my head on Himchan’s warm sleeping bag.

Someone turns the lights on. “What on earth is going on in here?” Youngjae exasperates, his hair cow-liked at the back.

The four of us stare wide-eyed at each other, then Himchan glares up at Daehyun and I suspiciously, still trapped in Yongguk’s strong hold.

“H-He kissed me!” I exclaim nervously at the same time that Daehyun yelled, “Sh-She scared me!”

“Oh my god,” Youngjae sighs. “Can you deal with your couple problems at a godly hour in the morning?” He leaves one light on and goes back to sleep.

I glare at his sleeping brown head, “W-We’re not a-!“

Himchan smirks. “If you wanted to play spin the bottle, you could have just asked, Daehyun.” He can’t stop giggling behind his hand, still being hugged by Yongguk.

I shove Himchan’s legs from his sleeping bag and stand up. “Can we pretend this never happened?” I exclaim.

“I’m afraid Daehyun might not.” Yongguk chuckles up at us, mentioning toward Daehyun.

I turn my head slowly towards the jerk. His face is red. His lips touched my innocent ones, and he has the nerve to blush! Isn’t he used to kissing girls by now!?

I widen my eyes and remember his previous actions on the recliner that made me walk over here in the first place. He could have been possessed, by his ual desires!

Daehyun notices me staring at him in horror, and quickly ushers me to my sleeping bag. “I think it’s time for Lim to sleep!”

Himchan and Yongguk shrug but snicker, then Yongguk releases his hold on Himchan’s waist as Himchan mumbles, “You think I’m pretty?” Yongguk whispers something back to him, and they just stare at each other from their individual sleeping bags.

“Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not what you think!” Daehyun whispers harshly into my ear, so the others won’t hear him.

I turn to face him, dropping his hold on my shoulders. “Were you having a wet dream?” I accuse him, biting back a laugh.

“Of course not!” He whisper-screams, cheeks heating up again. “Go to bed, dummy.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” I shake my head, then add. “Dummy.”

After I settle back into my sleeping bag, Daehyun lightly kicks my legs, telling me (weakly) to shut up some more.

After Himchan’s snoring resumes, and I can see the back of Daehyun’s brown head tucked into his respectful sleeping bag, his body rising and falling with his steady breathing, I let go of the breath I’ve been holding.

The touch from Daehyun’s lips to mine still stings. They were warm and soft and slightly enjoyable. I shake my head. Stop, stop, stop!

Gross, what are you thinking, Lim!? You can’t fall for his jerk-player charms like every other girl.

“It’s all part of his plan!” I whisper very softly to myself, glancing around the dim room to make sure everyone’s sound asleep. I won’t fall for it. Either he’s going to have to fall for me, or I’m going to fall for him. And I’ve already made my decision on that.

I fall asleep, wondering what his dream was about, if it could possibly be anything other than a dirty fantasy.

♬ ♬ ♬

None of us can wake up for . Himchan’s phone alarm blasts Beyoncé at 9 A.M. and there’s a bright light from the day outside coming from the windows, it shines upon Daehyun’s hair, his back turned toward all of us.

I think Yongguk kicked Himchan for him to turn the song the off, because five minutes of Beyonce’s singing later, Himchan scrambles to shut her off.

At 11:30, Himchan’s phone blasts Sistar, and Yongguk angrily shuts it off for him in the middle of Sistar’s ‘Touch My Body’ chorus. I stare at the analog clock directly in my eye sight on the wall some more.

At 12:15, Himchan’s mom comes upstairs and shakes Himchan awake. “There’s someone at the door for you, honey.” She tells him softly, so she won’t wake the others up. It wouldn’t be an easy task anyway, considering how deep of sleepers Zelo, Mitsuki and Jongup are.

Himchan keeps mumbling nonsense, so I stand up and help Mrs. Kim drag him out of his sleeping bag.

“Rub your face clean, there’s a girl at the door for you!” I exclaim in his face. That snaps him out of his sleeping haze a little, and he nods, rubbing his eyes. I mat down his hair and Mrs. Kim gives me a thankful smile before she walks back down the stairs.

I drag Himchan down the stairs, he’s heavy, leaning onto my shoulder, but we make it to the front door somehow.

He looks at me for last second appearance check, I flash him a thumbs up, even though he looks grouchy with sleep and his tired eyes are even smaller than usual, like thin slivers of moons.

I’m very surprised, when Himchan opens the door and the American girl from first period is standing there, waiting on his front step.

“Hi!” She beams. In careful Korean she says, “You’re Himchan, right?”

Himchan is stunned, but smiles lazily and nods, shaking her outstretched hand.

Her smile falters a little when she sees me next to him. “Oh.” I shake my head, denying all her possible ideas for my being there, in his house. I can see it in her concerning eyes. “We just woke up from a sleepover…”

She laughs nervously. “Oh, yeah.” She looks back at Himchan, with sparkly eyes. “I’m Ivy.” She introduces herself.

Himchan makes a pleased noise. “You’re not here to poison me, right?” Terrible joke.

“Oh, you never know with me.” She plays along. Himchan’s eyes crinkle up as he laughs behind his hand. “Anyway, I just love your YouTube channel! It’s so rare to find a guy so knowledgeable of beauty tips and well, I was wondering if you wanted to go to the spa or something with me sometime…so we could become close friends.”

Ivy alternates between Korean and English when she speaks and she flushes bright red because of it. Or maybe because of Himchan’s intense beauty. Himchan looks back at her stunned and flattered. “Um, wow. I didn’t think anyone around here knew about my YouTube channel, but oh my god, yes! Of course. Give me your number, girl.”

Ivy laughs softly and hands Himchan her phone from her pocket. After he punches in his digits and takes about five selfies before choosing the ‘perfect’ one to add as his profile picture, he texts from Ivy’s phone a message to himself so he can save her number.

As Himchan hands Ivy back her phone, her blonde hair bounces and her bright blue eyes gleam as she pulls him in for a farewell hug. Himchan squeezes her arms during their hug and when they part, Ivy’s cheeks are suspiciously pink. She’s so flustered around him! Cute, I note.

“Bye!” Ivy exclaims, waving a hand at me and staring at Himchan with adoring eyes.

“Take care.” Himchan says warmly in English.

When he shuts the door, he turns to me and I raise my eyebrows.

“She’s so cute!” He squeals. I nod. “We better take care of her.”

“I met a fan!” He giggles to himself, walking back through the house and having heard not a thing I’d said.

I better take good care of those two.

♬ ♬ ♬

Finally, the whole gang was awake. We were all a sluggish, yawning bunch surrounding the dining table, the way Mrs. Kim left us before she went off to run errands. Himchan’s sister was working at her part-time job at McDonald’s, Himchan’s dad had been at the office since 6:30 A.M. Mrs. Kim was talkative, like Himchan seems to also be, as she prepared us an American-styled breakfast: eggs, hash browns, toast and bacon, lots of bacon. She set the food in the middle of the table like a buffet, then fleeted out the door.

Mitsuki and Daehyun were the main ones that hogged down the food. Zelo only ate two pieces of bacon because he claimed “Mitsuki eats enough for both of us.”

Youngjae agreed and added, “I’m getting full just by watching them.” Grimacing as he inhaled a spoonful of eggs.

I munched on my hash browns, which tasted restaurant made, delicious, and spread jelly on Jongup’s toast that he was too sleepy to hold up the spreading knife to do on his own.

Himchan served everyone some orange juice, and took his seat back at the front of the table, the King’s seat. It was time to talk business.

“Okay, I have a feeling the girls know that we’ve been a band this whole time.” Daehyun chokes on his bacon and Youngjae smacks him on the back.

Jongup is suddenly full-on awake and gawking at me and then at Youngjae hopelessly. I want to lower down in my seat all the way until I turn into pudding puddle on the floor.

“Yes!” Mitsuki exclaims, relieved. She flashes me excited eyes. I shake my head.

“Wow, Himchan. You’re not only looks but you’ve also got brains. Good observation.” Yongguk mutters, causing Himchan to gasp and blush.

“I’m flattered you think of me that way, Bang Yongguk. It’s about time.” Himchan can’t stop smiling as Yongguk rolls his eyes fiercely.

“Why are you guys so calm!?” Jongup sputters. “This is social suicide!”

“Well, Himchan already invited us over to a sleepover, you’d think we’d be dumb enough to believe you guys weren’t already friends?” Mitsuki challenges him.

Jongup opens and closes his mouth to say something, but the words never come to him. “So what now?” Youngjae speaks thinly, look around at his bandmates. “We’re just going to have to trust them not to say anything?”

“What are you so scared of?” I ask softly.

“Do you know who I am?” Daehyun interjects. I stare at him blankly. What’s he blabbing on about now? “Do you have any idea what the people I hang out with will say if they find out about this? They’ll never stop giving me for being in a band with…” He trails off, eyes flickering to the guys, suddenly ashamed. He’s stuck choosing between his popular-guy reputation and the people who know him the most. The table is suddenly very quiet and I want to slap Daehyun upside his head. Of course he should choose keeping his best friends!

“What matters the most?” I tell him, “Your popularity, or your real friends?”

Daehyun glares at me hopelessly. “That’s not what I want to talk about!” Himchan interrupts.

“I want to talk about that article of yours, Lim. We’re gonna take a vote for who’s okay with Lim writing an article about us.”

Youngjae and Jongup make protesting sounds, but Himchan shushes them with a raised hand. “Vote!” He reminds them.

Five raised their hand for yes, three raised their hand for no. “It’s set then.” Himchan concluded.

“No,” Daehyun exclaims in horror. “This isn’t fair!”

“We decide on everything based on everyone’s 100% contribution, Daehyun. How much more fair can you get than that?” Himchan challenges.

“The girls don’t count!” Jongup declares in place of Daehyun. “They’re not part of the band. So it’s 3 and 3.”

“I’m Zelo’s manager!” Mitsuki defends. “And Lim is the one who we’re talking about at hand.”

“She’s right.” Zelo adds. Jongup glares at him and Zelo holds his arms up in defense, as if to say: Blood Best Friends stick together. They could’ve been blood-siblings, if they weren’t so in love with each other. Mitsuki smirks at Zelo.

“Just let her write the article, Jongup.” Yongguk heaves.

“Actually, Ms. Gong can be unfairly harsh.” Youngjae says thoughtfully. “ it. Kill ‘em, Lim. I don’t want to keep hiding anymore. I’m on the affirmative side now.” Youngjae flashes me an encouraging smile, and I feel like flying. Daehyun gasps and looks at Youngjae like he’s a traitor and Jongup makes a noise like he wants to cry.

“So, when should we start interviewing?” Himchan beams at us.

“Guys!” Daehyun exasperates. “Do you care about me or Jongup at all?”

Jongup exhales shakily, and Yongguk tries to soothe down his tight shoulders.

“It’s not like it’s the end of the world.” Zelo yells angrily right back at him. “No one even reads the newspaper that much anyway!”

“And how would you know?” Daehyun whines. “All you care about is your girlfriend and her sidekick over there.”

“If you have something to say, say it to my face, Jung.” Mitsuki makes a motion like punching with her hands. “You wouldn’t know the first thing about focusing on other things besides your girlfriends.” Mitsuki sneers at him.

Daehyun gasps and tries to reach her from over the table, and Himchan stops him when he makes a beeline for Mitsuki’s chair.

“What’s going on with us?” Jongup yells. Mitsuki crosses her arms and shakes off Zelo’s protective hand on her shoulder. “This is not how we used to spend our time together, fighting like this.” He sits back down. “I just want things to be like before.”

My eyes grow sad. He wanted it to be like before they weren’t the only ones who knew about their secret; before Mitsuki and mine’s curiosity got the best of us that we interrupted their only relaxed pass-time, where they could truly be themselves without the pressures of our school’s status quo.

“But isn’t ironic how Principal Lee wanted you guys to play at the talent show as band when you guys actually are a band in secret? Isn’t this fate?” I let the question simmer in the air. Daehyun won’t look up, and Jongup just looks as torn as ever.

Himchan nods determinedly. “This isn’t about what other people will think of us. This about the sake of B.A.P.” He motions for Daehyun to sit back down. “Getting B.A.P known has always been our goal.” I can feel Daehyun’s unreadable eyes on me, and I focus on looking ahead, anywhere but at him. Himchan ends it dreamily, “Risking it all is worth it. The rest is history.”  

 ✎ ✉ ✎

Author's note: sorry if this is 3000+ word trash ;;nn;; i've been neglecting updating for too long u_u i wanted to update on dae's bday but i ended finishing this up a little late!! but ahhhhh what a sweetie qtpie real life jung daehyun is :') how can anyone not love him? bless his heart. now hopefully we can get lim and dae's relationship going!! i'm thinking there'll be four more chapters left? or six?? idk... ;w;. subscribe and comment if you enjoyed!! we appreciate it with loooveee :-) love, -L