“Good job,” Alex scoffed playfully as she nudged you at the dining room table after you had all made yourselves so breakfast, of course the two of you being pampered and cared for before anyone else. “Ya smacked the guy. You’ve only been here for a night and as if feeling him up back in the States wasn’t enough, you hit him in his native land. Kudos, my friend,” she sneered as she shoveled a spoonful of hot oatmeal into , only to burn the roof of . You snickered under your breath.

            “As you were saying? You can barely eat right. You’re going to hurt yourself dongsaeng,” you pointed out matter-of-factly. She only rolled her eyes and before ing another spoonful into , blew on it reluctantly.

            “At least I didn’t hit my bias,” she retorted.

            “I would totally let you hit me!” Sandeul interrupted, much to the amusement of the other members. She only looked at him and smirked before ruffling his already messy bed hair.

            “I’ll let the two of them hit me up,” Gongchan suggested seductively, garnering a side glare from the oldest member.

            “It was an accident-“ you tried to explain, a blush creeping across your cheeks already just thinking of the ultimate mistake that any fangirl could commit and that you so happened to do so early in the relationship.

            “Yeah, it was no big deal. I shouldn’t have been there, but I just couldn’t sleep alone in my bed and I wanted to make sure she was alright,” Shinwoo added as he got up to go to the kitchen to find more sugar. You could feel your ears burning this time with how intensely you were blushing and you ducked your head, embarrassed as you shied from the others.

            “O see, look at what you’ve done, Shinwoo! You’ve made her into a rose~ I’ve never seen her blush this hard,” Alex called carelessly as if it was completely normal to out a friend to her ultimate bias and as if she and Shinwoo had been friends for years. You envied her nonchalance with them, but you knew that she had other things, other people on her mind. The only thing on yours at the time was how you could kill her while making it look like an accident for embarrassing you even further. Shinwoo only chuckled, his voice deep and husky from his night’s sleep. You were ready to faint on the spot, but at this point, you weren’t sure if it was more likely for you to spontaneously combust with how hot you were feeling or to faint from all the excitement- and it was only 10 in the morning.

            “I think it’s cute,” he shrugged as he sat back down next to you, shifting his chair over ever so closely. You tensed up as you involuntarily thought about last night and how close the two of you were then. How you wished you could return to that time, when time itself seemed to stop and nothing else mattered- no clumsy dongsaengs, no responsibilities, just you and he, the person you loved.

            “Hey, Lenena, why do you blush?” Sandeul asked bluntly.

            “Oh my god, Sandeul. You can’t just ask someone why they blush,” Jinyoung scoffed, pulling off his best Mean Girls impersonation. You and Alex looked at each other in disbelief, wondering if it was just your imagination as California-bred young adults who grew up on that or if it was merely Jinyoung reprimanding the often clueless younger member.

            “You didn’t…?” Alex asked slowly, still unsure, but somehow hoping that they had quoted one of the best teenage movies ever.

            “Well, even we have Mean Girls here in Korea. I mean, we do have Netflix after all,” Baro remarked, picking up on you confusion.

            “Plus, we have to brush up on our American pop culture references if we’re going to have anything worth saying at our mentions at KCON this year,” Gongchan added casually.

            “Wait, what?!?!? You’re going to KCON?!?!” You and Alex exclaimed in unison, the latter nearly spilling the oatmeal on herself.

            “Aigoo, so does that mean that I have to go through all the moves in all of like a month?!?” Alex groaned, dropping her head in her palms on the table. “Consider me dead, then,” she mumbled.

            “O no, no, no, we aren’t have a comeback,” Shinwoo tried to console her. “So, you don’t technically have to start work yet. We can take care of it.” She eventually lolled her head up and cracked a smile, relieved.

            “Well, not before KCON at least. We’re scheduled for a comeback afterwards, however,” Jinyoung admitted coolly.

            “O what?!” you exclaimed. “Finally~!” The table laughed at your obvious excitement, Shinwoo’s smile brightening the room the most before you realized how desperate you had made yourself seem. “I mean, well, that would be great! So KCON and a new comeback? I don’t think I am ready for this,” you confessed.

            “Well, you better be because we’re going to need all the help we can get,” Sandeul replied.

            “And don’t worry, I will be with you every step of the way. When it gets too hard, don’t hesitate to find me. I can help you relieve some of those nerves,” Shinwoo whispered, sending a shiver down your spine as your mind emptied but all the possibilities of spending any type of alone time with him

            “Yah~! Hyung, whispering at the table is rude,” Gongchan pointed out, irritated.

            “Don’t be mad she isn’t paying attention to you,” Sandeul shrugged.

            “As if Alex is paying any more attention to you. All she cares about is the food,” he retorted hotly, startling Alex.

            “Everyone, please calm down. It is too early for this and we have other things on hand,” Jinyoung ordered calmly, authoritatively, to which the quarreling boys adhered and Shinwoo and Baro nodded in agreement.

            “I bet you boys have so much to do. Is there anything we can do?” you offered candidly.

            “Whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t just volunteer me like that unnie~” Alex whined, pouting and folding her arms across her chest.

            “Yah~ It is an honor to be here. The least we can do is help with anything they may need. Don’t be so selfish dongsaeng,” you snapped, which only made her deepen her frown.

            “Well, it’s quite alright, she is going to have her work cut out for her immediately after KCON with our comeback. She needs to rest,” Baro interrupted.

            “She can always rest with me~” Gongchan volunteered. Sandeul only rolled his eyes, trying to adhere to the leader’s previous request.

            “Anyway, we kind of needed someone to…” Shinwoo trailed off, trying to think out his words. “Teach us English- at least enough to do well at any fan meet and in our mentions,” he finished shyly, glancing at you before immediately averting his gaze.

            “Why so shy, Shinwoo?” Alex asked, naively, cocking her head to the side in confusion at his abashed demeanor. The rest of the table soon followed after the eldest’ lead. You and her glanced at Sandeul, who was rarely ever like this. “What’s wrong with any of you, though?” she inquired, patting Sandeul on the head lightly.

            “I-It’s just that we’ve never had the opportunity to learn it up close and personal like this,” Jinyoung started. “Usually, we are given a script and we have to learn it but no one has actually sat down and taught us. We just don’t know how well we will do and we don’t want to disappoint,” he sighed.

            “It’s nice talking to you in Korean, but it’s just that we don’t feel like it would be fair since you guys speak Korean so well but we hardly speak English,” Baro added.

            “Is that all?” you asked, fighting back a giggle although you remembered the struggle of constantly wondering whether your accent was correct or if you had said a bad word when all you meant to say 15. The five boys nodded, heads still down. “O, don’t feel so shy. We would love to! We remember the same struggle back when we were learning as well,” you explained. “It would be our pleasure, isn’t that right, Alex?” you asked expectantly, to which she nodded honestly and fervently before giving Sandeul a hug.

            “Where’s our hug?” Gongchan whined. You and Alex rolled your eyes before initiating a group hug after which you all helped do the dishes and clean the kitchen, you and Shinwoo nearly joined at the hip as you worked together.

            “So how do we go about this?” Alex inquired as she flopped on the couch that, to you, already held so many happy memories.

            “Well, I think we should just try to immerse them in it. Just speak it, I guess?” you suggested as you joined her.

            “That could work,” she replied, nodding her head. “Alright, boys, we have to do this efficiently. So that means you guys have to listen to us very carefully. If any of you have questions, don’t be afraid to ask what a word means here and there,” she ordered. “Should we try to see how much English they know?” she asked, addressing you.

            “I am Sandeul~” Sandeul announced happily. Alex only beamed at his enthusiasm and his adorable accent.

            “That’s about all he knows how to say,” Shinwoo sighed, shaking his head.

            “Looks like we have work to do then,” you concluded, clapping your hands together. “The countdown to KCON starts now and by then, you boys will at least be able to say something more than your name and hopefully with as much confidence as Sandeul has when he just says his name,” you chuckled.

 

 

            It had been all of a week before the other members had all but broken down. Gongchan had rage quit a billion times over, only to try to seductively say “I love you” to get back on your good side. Baro was only interested in trying to rap in English, his husky voice flitting through your mind from time to time as you imagined a purely English rap by the main rapper. Jinyoung was extremely studious, though he often stumbled. Sandeul would not leave Alex’ side and would often point at any and everything trying to make out what it was in English.

Then there was Shinwoo.

Then there was Shinwoo standing in the doorway of your shared room as you relaxed, listening to some K-pop after a long day of tutoring and making sure Alex or Sandeul didn’t kill themselves accidentally or set something on fire. Then there was Shinwoo, taking a seat next to you on the floor in the dimly lit room and plucking an earphone out ever so gently. You lifted your head from the bed (because you were too considerate to actually take the bed, but you were not above leaning your head on the foot of the bed), your eyes fluttering open and trying to adjust before your heart thumped out of your chest at the sight of him, him smiling at you sweetly and shyly.

“E-Excuse me, c-can you help me?” he managed, his English obviously broken. You internally gasped, his accent and soft tone catching you off guard considering he did not want to be too loud. He looked at you through his thick glasses expectantly.

“Yeah, sure, what do you need help with?” you replied calmly, betraying how fast your heart was thumping and the rate at which your mind- along with the rest of your body- was numbing.

“Everything,” he sighed in Korean before thumping himself on the forehead for switching languages. You rubbed his forehead shaking your head.

“I will help you, if you never do that again. Don’t be so mean to yourself. Well, do you know what you want to say?” you asked. “Anything at all? We can practice,” you assured him, smile soft as you placed your hand on top of his. You could hardly see the blush creep across his cheeks, so light that you thought you had imagined it. He merely nodded as he tried mulling through his words carefully.

“I want to describe something, well not something. I just want to know how to say I am just so happy, just in this moment. Is there a word for that?” he asked softly.

“Well, I don’t quite get what you mean,” you admitted. “Well, there probably isn’t just one word for that, at least not what I can think of. I guess the kind of word that could even come close would be “perfect” but you see, that means a lot of things,” you sighed as your racked your brain for another synonym.

“Well, what does it mean?”

“Well, it could mean that someone or something is so great that it cannot be made any better than it already is. It could mean that it is the best moment, person, or thing in your life. It basically means, let’s see…” you trailed off.

“Is it a feeling?”

“Well, it could be. You could feel that something is like that, but I don’t think that it is an actual feeling. Yeah, you can’t say that,” you explained.

Then, there was Shinwoo.

Then, there was Shinwoo saying something that almost sounded like “You’re perfect”, but before you could process the wild lie your imagination made for you, there was Shinwoo turning your chin to look at him. There was Shinwoo pressing his lips against your own quickly, ever so lightly yet ever so passionately. He pulled away, blushing, turning his back to you, all in slow motion. Before you could tell yourself not to, there was you wrapping your arms around his waist and placing your head on his back, hearing his heart beat at the speed of light, relaxing moments after your touch. You could feel the warm tears dripping down your cheeks as your lips curled into a soft, content smile. His large hands gently removed your hands from around his waist as he turned to you and wiped away your tears before kissing you on the forehead. He helped you up and, amidst your feeble whining about not wanting to use his bed and be disrespectful, he coaxed you into bed, pushing you lightly on the bed before crawling over you. He supported himself with one hand as he cupped your cheek and kissed you softly on the forehead.

“Please remember and please continue to be who you are,” he urged, almost pleading as he go off of you and pulled the covers over you. “I’ll be right here, every step of the way,” he promised. Exhausted from the sudden peak in anxiety and confusion, you fell asleep quickly with him by your side once more as he promised.

There was you, confused and heart pounding, feelings awry yet more content than you could ever say.

There was him, watching over you diligently and compassionately.

Then, there was Gongchan.