Chapter 29

“3, 2, 1, fight, you immediately bite at my neck; You don't plan to let go, your eyes glaring; Turn it up all night; All night together, turn it up all night - Blood”

The Every Day6 Project was well under way and they were hitting their second month into the project.

Due to the monthly releases, they were riding high on the charts and started to appear on music shows on regular basis.

Apart from that, they were also getting invitations to university or other mainstream concerts.

And that was on top of the scheduled Day6 two-day concerts they staged at the end of each month.

So, if Momo thought they led a hectic life before, this project trippled their usual pace.

But Momo was enjoying the experience, and for someone who was used to hard work, she kept up with boys and crew like a real trooper.

So, a rare rest day at home like today was thoroughly cherished, as Momo and the boys happily sat around the kitchen table, goofing away at lunch.

“Sungjin-oppa, if you’re done, I can wash that for you,” Momo got up from the table.

They all stared at her.

“How come he can be called oppa?” Young K short of shouted at her.

“Because he deserves it.”

“Momo-chan, I can wash that for you,” Wonpil asked.

Day6 has long dropped the honorifics with Momo, preferring to call her by the more endearing Momo-chan name.

“No, it’s ok. I’m good,” Momo smiled, carrying her plate and Sungjin’s to the sink, as the others were still eating.

Jae grinned.

“He’s trying to earn the rights to be called oppa too.”

“Oh?” Momo turned towards them at the table. “But I can’t call you oppa, Wonpil-ssi.”

“Why not?” Wonpil whined, almost to the point of crying.

Done with her washing, she turned fully and leaned against the counter top.

“Because to me... you are Piri-kun,” Momo smiled fondly at the sweet man.

“Stop flirting woman!” Young K yelled, getting up abruptly from his seat.

Surprising everyone.

“Hey, chill man,” Jae tried to cool him down, “gawd, what’s with you lately. Mo-chan is just joking, right?”

Momo nodded, looking at both Jae and Young K with the most innocent eyes.

But Young K knew otherwise.

He knew she was goading him, paying back for the fact that he was keeping her with him.

Not that she really mind, truth be told, but she did not appreciate the high handed way that he went about it.

Young K and Momo were like cats and dogs, Jae thought suddenly. Which was weird, because she was sweet with everybody, including with those she worked with at JYPE.

Everyone loved her.

Yet, with Young K…

Being his homey, Jae was always in tune with whatever Young K was doing, thinking or even feeling.

He noticed that Young K at times acted weirdly whenever Momo was around.

Many a times, Jae felt Young K tensed up whenever Momo was in the vicinity.

Momo could be a talkative girl if she wanted to be, so the boys and Jae were never lost for words whenever they were with her.

Yet, he hardly ever hear Young K utter a word to Momo whenever they were together.

So, for Young K to suddenly burst out of the blue like that, was totally unexpected.

Jae’s eyes narrowed.

Something fishy’s going on here, he thought, determined to pay more attention to these two.

***

“Hey Brian.”

“Hey Jimin baby…” Young K leered, looping his long hands over the petite announcer’s shoulder.

“Eh?” Jae’s AFC partner looked up in surprise.

Jimin and Young K got along well, as how she did with the rest of the Day6 boys.

Day6 was Jimin’s favourite band, after all, nothing biaised towards Jae, of course.

They were all her oppas.

But today, Young K’s friendliness was a little off.

“And he called me a flirt,” Momo fumed under her breath, looking at Young K’s antics from the corner of her eyes. She was going through the script with an AFC’s production crew just a few metres away.

Day6 have appeared on the After School Club a few times already, where Jae was co-host with Jimin and Kevin.

Today they were invited to the show as part of their project promotions, and Jae has switched seats to being an interviewee instead of the interviewer.

Hence, they were all on and off stage, getting ready for taping.

“Is Brian drunk?” Kevin, an AFC co-host asked Jae, as they lounged around.

Jae shook his head yet frowned at the same time.

Young K was being weird again in Jae’s eyes.

But before he could dwell on the matter, Momo came over with the updated script, handing one copy to him.

“Hey, who’s this?” Kevin asked.

“Our new cordi noona,” Jae grinned.

“Anyeong.”

“Ooh… you’re so cute,” Jimin exclaimed in English. She managed to pry herself from weird Brian, and joined Jae and Kevin at the side.

Momo grinned bashfully at the star’s sincere praise.

“Thank you, not as cute as you though,” Momo replied in perfect yet heavily accented English, as well.

Jimin laughed, liking the girl already.

“What happed to Cordi Kim?”

“She’s on maternity leave, so Momo-chan is here to take care of us.”

“Momo-chan?”

“Yup, Momo’s Japanese.”

“Aah, no wonder your English is spot on,” Kevin said.

“Her Korean is spot on too,” Jae said like a proud father.

“Well, I hope these boys are not giving you a run around,” Jimin grinned.

“No, they’re a handful but a wonderful bunch, none the less,” Momo grinned. “I’m actually honoured to be working for them.”

And she truly meant what she said.

***

“Gosh…! I ship this two so much..!”

Momo once read that statement on Youtube.

It was on based on the Baek A Yeon and Young K’s song collaboration.

The song collaboration was done two years before, but when the boys and Momo bumped into her a Music Bank taping, it reminded Momo what she read when she was stalking them on the social media.

And she was ready to hate the woman.

Especially when the boys were extra friendly and fawned all over her.

As just a supporting crew, Momo tried to make herself inconspicuous, waiting patiently or in this case, impatiently, for them to move on.

“Anyeong,” the sweet singer suddenly called out to her.

A Yeon politely acknowledged Momo’s presence despite the boys’ excited chatter.

Being label mates, she was close to the boys, and it has been a while since they met.

But that did not stop her from being polite to a supporting crew.

“Oh noona,” Dowoon grinned, “this is our new cordi. Isn’t she cute?”

“Yes, she is,” A Yeon smiled. “Hi, I’m Baek A Yeon.”

“I am Momo,” Momo smiled, reprimanding herself for wanting to hate A Yeon earlier. “It’s a pleasure meeting you.”

But before they could proceed to chat further, Young K rudely intercepted the conversation.

“So, A Yeon-nie, when are we collaborating again?” he asked in a low suggestive voice.

Again, totally out of character, in Jae’s, and even A Yeon’s, eyes.

But the latter professionally answered, “any time Day6 has for me, would be a good opportunity. I hear you guys are extremely busy nowadays.”

“Oh yes, we are,” Wonpil said. “do you like our releases so far?”

“Yes, most definitely. I really love ‘I Would’. So so sad.”

“You can blame Young K for that. He’s been depressed lately,” Sungjin laughed.

“Really? He doesn’t look depressed now,” the soft spoken singer said in surprise.

“That’s because you are here,” Young K smiled, extra sweet, leaning in towards the singer.

A statement and action so puke-inducing, Momo just had to excuse herself and proceed to next destination first.

***

“Mo-chan, you sit here,” Dowoon took her to the front of the concert hall floor. “You are our guest of honour today. We want you to really watch our performance and tell us what you think, ok?”

“I’ll go get the camera.”

“Nope, no need. Just enjoy the show.”

“Arasso,” Momo grinned at Dowoon’s enthusiasm.

It would be her first experience watching them live on stage, and she just could not wait.

Young K on stage, was a totally different animal.

She has seen him perform on stage on Youtube.

And was in awe of his stage presence.

But seeing him live and right smack in front of her, was a whole different ball game all together.

Her Brian-san has always been compliant, polite and sweet.

The Korean Brian off stage too. With all others except her, that was, Momo thought.

But the guy on stage was totally out of this world.

Totally hyped.

Totally engrossed with his music.

Totally y and charismatic.

Totally Young K.

She could hit herself on the head for suggesting that he should be a singer when he graduated.

He must have laughed his head off at me back then, Momo fumed slightly, but more in embarrassment.

But Young K was more than a singer.

He was a musician, a rapper, an entertainer, a total heart throb.

Momo tried to pay equal attention to her other boys, but to no avail.

Young K kept pulling her time and time again to watch him.

And only him.

She simply could not take her eyes off him.

And he knew it.

And he played her up to the max.

Teasing and enticing her – with his voice, his intense stare, his quirky y dance, his suggestive s, his hair ruffle, his love affair with the microphone, his long strumming fingers.

Leaving nothing to Momo’s imagination.

He was literally making love to her. Virtually, from the stage.

And Momo wanted to kill him for it.

***

They did it again.

Those two American Canadian boys, Momo fumed.

Standing by the fridge and laughing their private joke at Wonpil’s misuse of English.

“Stop it!” she raised her voice. “Stop picking on Wonpil-ssi!”

Both Jae and Young K stopped sniggering almost immediately.

They were all lounging in the kitchen again and Wonpil was trying to explain a Hangul phrase to Momo in English.
“I am not,” Young K argued, feeing the heat of her eyes on him in particular.

Jae was shocked and automatically took cover behind his partner in crime, knowing he was guilty of Momo’s accusation.

This was the first time he saw Momo truly angry.

Yet, fortunately for him, Momo’s wrath was directed solely towards Young K.

“You are too! You and Jae always laugh at his English,” pointing her finger at him. “It’s not easy, you know, learning another language. You should know too. You, yourself, struggle with basic Japanese. So, how dare you pick on another.”

“Waah.. I thought she was the sweet quiet type,” Sungjin looked on in wonder, glad he was on Wonpil’s side of the fence.

“Obviously not,” Wonpil answered in awe.

Dowoon, as usual, sat in the middle, looking on with glee. He knew this time, exactly which side to run too, though.

“I really really like her,” Wonpil whispered to Sungjin. “I think we should keep her with us forever.”

“Yes, I agree. She’s really cute when she’s angry too,” Dowoon grinned, already standing on Wonpil’s side.

The argument, or rather, the one sided admonishment session continued.

She was so angry with him.

Has been angry with him ever since they met.

To the extend that, even she did not know why she was angry with him in the first place.

But everything that has been festering in her for the last few months, came tumbling out.

At rapid fire pace.

“Aaand just because your fans says you’re perfect, it doesn’t really mean that you are, wakata?” Momo went on. “And stop with that ‘oh, I’m such a y, creative genius’ persona of yours!”

“What? When did I ever say I was y? Or a genius for that matter?” Young K contended.

“You don’t have to say it out loud, hyung,” Dowoon agreed with Momo, obviously not knowing when it was best to stay quiet, “but we all know that you think you are. y, I mean. Genius, maybe not.”

“Who’s side are you on, kid?”

“Improve yourself, and behave!” Momo scolded. “Stop flirting with the camera, or the audience, or anyone else, for that matter. It’s very unbecoming!”

Ooo-kaaay…

Everyone’s eyebrows shot up, not only Young K’s.

That sounded very much like a jealous girlfriend.

And the girlfriend has not finished.

“Also, your voice is not the best, arasso? Sungjin-oppa’s is.”

“Ouch,” Jae winced. “That’s really hitting it below the belt.”

Sungjin’s eyes grew wide and smiled secretly.

“Yup, we’re definitely keeping her,” he said under his breath.

The subject matter at hand finally decided to finish her tirade, and started to storm off.

“Piri-kun, tarrawa!” she ordered as she stormed off.

Wonpil got up instantaneously and followed her like an obedient dog, throwing an aegyo to the boys as he went.

“Also,” she turned towards Young K again, obviously not quite finished yet. “It’s togeTHER and not togeDER.”

And she slammed the front door behind her as she left.

Young K stared at the closed door for the longest time.

Before he burst out laughing, rolling to the ground as he did.

Leaving the others to stare at him as if he had lost his mind.

And in a way, he has.

It took all his self control not to run after her and grab her by her face, and kiss her silly.

She has been ignoring him for so long, he was really getting pissed.

But obviously, his attempts to make her jealous, and more, finally brought out some reaction from her.

And just now, his fiesty Momo re-emerged. With all anger targeted towards him.

Masochistic or not, he loved it.

And he thanked all the lucky stars for bringing her back to him.

Foxi’s Notes – I have some personal categories for Day6 songs : sad ones, happy ones & naughty ones. By the beat of the songs and reading their lyrics, you can roughly gauge these guys’ moods, thoughts & even inclinations.

This chapter is all about Day6 being (Japanese for erted) not only of the ual kind, but also the self depreciating one.) Altho YK’s gift with words often made the meaning subtle and somewhat tasteful.

Hunt, Blood, Be Lazy and even Dance Dance rank high on the ‘Day6 being naughty’ department. Very suggestive & at most times, y.

Blood, tho, is more about an abusive relationship where the couple constantly fight and the guy actually liking it that way (you see what I mean) (even Wooyang of 2PM once said that YK tend to be erted at times). Out of My Mind too for that matter.

But boys will be boys, Omma thinks; & better a erted happy YK than depressed dejected YK 😊

Here are some vids of Brian in action for Hunt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FgMUE38LYY /  https://www.facebook.com/shutupibiasmyself.jae/posts/218369318698118) & my fav performance of Blood (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMAiLsI8LVA ).

God bless everyone. 

p/s a tribute to Sungjin Oppa - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQYR09XpvLc

p/s the togeTHER vs togeDER part can be heard loud & clear in Freely (YK’s rap part) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnWx8EPmpJk ). Oohh that precious Konglish 😊