Chapter 33

“Ooh, What can I do? I’ve already fallen for you – What Can I Do”

“Hyung, Momo hasn’t left her room since morning. I called her out for breakfast earlier, but she didn’t answer,” Dowoon ran up to Sungjin as soon as his older brothers came in that afternoon.

The four of them went out to the gym earlier, while Dowoon slept in.

“Mwo? What’s wrong, Momo-chan’s never late,” Sungjin frowned.

All five of them went to knock on her door.

When they heard her groan, they asked for permission to enter and opened her door.

Momo was laying in her bed, fetus styled, clutching her stomach as she did so.

“Period pain,” Wonpil said immediately, knowing his sister suffered from the same monthly ailment. “I’ll go down and get some medicine.

***

The boys waited anxiously by her door, while Wonpil ran to the drugstore at the apartment’s ground floor.

Young K went to get a glass of water ready.

When the asprin arrived, he simply took it from Wonpil and went straight into Momo’s room.

“Thanks, I’ll take over from here,” he announced, before closing and locking the door with a resounding click.

Jae stared at the door in front of his face.

“Did he just lock the door on us?” he blinked, not believing Young K’s actions.

“Yes, Jae, he did,” Sungjin answered with a baffled expression that mirrored Jae’s.

“He did, didn’t he?” Jae looked at the leader. “That boy will get it from me.”

***

“Come, can you get up?”

Momo grimaced but tried to sit up anyways.

Young K helped and made her sit in his arms.

He gave her the medicine and put the glass of water to her lips.

“I’m ok, it’ll be better by morning. It only lasts a day or so.”

Young K tenderly held her as she finished the glass of water.

After which he helped her lie back down.

Feeling helpless yet embarrassed, Momo turned away from him to hug her knees to her chest like before.

But Young K refused to leave her and started to knead her back, hoping to ease the pain away.

“Daijobu,” Momo whispered, yet silently acknowledging that his back rub was helping her a little. Her mother used to do the same to her whenever the pain became unbearable.

“Oka-chan,” she sniffled, missing her mother. She still has not called her parents since she came to Seoul. Her guilt was stopping her completely from getting in touch with her family.

“You miss your mom, huh?” Young K sympathised, rubbing her hair down as he would do to a scared kitten.

At his actions, Momo started to cry silently, more from missing her mother than her tummy pains.

Without thinking, Young K slid into her bed, and hugged her from behind.

Giving her comfort with his body warmth.

“Lets’ call her tomorrow, neh? I’ll be with you when you call her.”

“I’m sure she’s so disappointed with me. She may be ill for all I know,” Momo cried softly.

“I’m sure she’s all right,” he placated her, “and will be so glad to hear from you.”

He continued to rub her back, before an idea hit him.

“I tell you what,” he suddenly thought aloud. “We’re scheduled for KCon Japan in a month. Let’s go up to Hakuba when we’re done, huh? We’ll ask for a short break before coming back to Seoul. Would you like that?”

Momo stopped crying at that prospect and turned in his arms.

“We can do that?”

“We’ll try,” Young K nodded. “We’ll ask for Hyung-nim’s permission.”

“Ok.”

He smiled at her subsiding tears. The asprin would aslo be kicking in by now, making her pain diminish somewhat.

“Come, lift your head a bit.”

Young K slid his arm beneath her head when she complied.

For her pillow.

The actions somehow came naturally to them.

With no questions asked from either of them.

“Sleep, ok?” Young K cuddled her lovingly.

“Komawo,” Momo murmured as she trustingly snuggled in, happy to be in her Brian-san’s arms again.

And within minutes, she fell asleep.

***

Later that evening, Young K tiptoed out of Momo’s room like a guilty part-time lover, only to meet 4 pairs of eyes waiting for him from the kitchen table.

Strucking him paralysed by Momo’s door.

“Dude, we seriously need to talk,” Jae said with deadpan face.

***

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Young K insisted.

He was forced to sit at the same table, ready to be interrogated.

Jae often thought he was astute, but in this case, they were about 6 months late into their deductions.

Despite always giving the lost Chicken Little vibes and nerdy-persona accentuated by his glasses, Jae was by far the most brutally honest, gruff and street smart member amongst all of them.

Next to him was adorable and innocent, Dowoon, who was looking with an excited 'I don't know what was going on, but I'm game to play' expression.

Third in line came Wonpil, who looked as bewildered as Dowoon.

Last, sat leader Sungjin, who fortunately seemed to know what the session was about, yet did not look as menacing as Jae.

"You know," Jae started, speaking like how he would when MC-ing for After School Club, "God has been really kind to us. He not only gave us good looks and talent, but he also gave us brains to think."

"Cute, don't forget we’re cute too," Wonpil supplied.

"Cute is just you, Wonpil," Jae brushed him off, albeit kindly. "As I was saying, so what we think is that... the two of you is very fishy. From the very start. Even the way she came to live with us is fishy. Sungjin."

Jae passed the baton, and the leader took over like a pro.

"Yes, what we would like to know is what your story is. We’ve somehow gauged that Momo being here is more than meets the eye.”

Young K was somewhat glad that the boys finally caught on. He did not want to hide who Momo was any longer. However, the trait interview session-like the boys were conducting, was going to make him laugh.

“So, who is she?” Jae asked straight forwardly. “Did you meet her in Tokyo? Or in Hakuba?”

Before he could answer, Momo’s door opened and she stumbled out, heading for the bathroom.

Not really noticing the conference in her groggy state.

She had woken up feeling a slight pain in her abdomen but otherwise truly rested.

She vaguely remembered being cuddled to sleep by Young K, and her last coherent thought was how his warm hand soothed away her monthly pain.

As she put her hand on the door handle, Jae’s voice called out to her.

“Aihara-san, sumimasen.”

“Hait,” Momo automatically answered turning towards the boys.

Young K ran his palm over his face, making Momo realise her mistake.

Jae remembered the name Young K gave him when he asked Jae to save Momo’s mobile number. He saw the name on Momo’s contract too, many months before. It just did not hit him back then.

“You’re such a prick Brian,” Jae berrated him, finally knowing the truth.

That Momo was the daughter of the hostel owners in Hakuba.

Young K never told them, but Jae simply took a wild guess.

And he was proven right.

“Don’t you think I know that?” Young K ran a hand through his hair.

“So, you didn’t come back immediately, not because you wanted to hide there longer, but simply just to be with Mo-chan longer,” And Wonpil finally made sense.

Young K’s silence proved Wonpil right.

“Yes and no, actually.” Young K owned up, belatedly.

Momo could only watch helplessly from the bathroom door.

She knew Young K has to explain himself to his brothers without her interference.

“What the f’*k?!” Jae shot his expletives “Then, why is she here? Did you lead this poor girl thousand of miles across the ocean, just to be with you?”

Again Young K stayed quiet. What Jae said was in a way, true.

“And ignore her most of the time?”

“Maybe he just ignored Momo in front of us, but not behind us,” Wonpil was again spot on.

“You lied to us, dude?” Jae asked in disbelief.

“It’s not like that,” Young K argued. “I had to leave her cos I got an email with her pictures with me. But I left, leaving her my real name.”

“She didn’t know who you were back then?”

“Nope. I just told her my name was Brian at the start.”

“We really truly are not famous,” Dowoon randomly whispered to Wonpil.

Earning a dejected nod from the latter.

“Mo-chan, why did you come after this prick? Didn’t you know it was better to stay away?” Jae hollered from the kitchen

Before Momo could defend herself, Young K answered for her.

“I left my chain with her, and she came to return it.”

Young K spilled the whole story then, from how Momo rescued him and how the family took care of him, and how he felt so at peace in Hakuba; to the email he received and how devastated he was to leave Momo without explanations. Then, he related how Momo discovered who he really was and coming to Seoul to look for him, to him finding her being bullied at the book store, to him begging the President to take her home, and why he kept everything a secret from the boys.

“You should have trusted us more, Brian,” Sungjin said softly.

Making Young K feel smaller than he was already feeling.

“I know. But things just happened, and Mo was angry with me and refused to talk to me in the beginning…”

“So, she’s the reason you’ve been moping and pining all these while,” Jae grinned.

“I wasn’t pining for Momo!”

“I would pine for Mo-chan,” Wonpil said.

“Yeah, me too actually,” Dowoon said, nodding in agreement.

“Yeah, all right, all right,” Young K cried defeat. “I was pining for her. You guys happy now? And she’s mine, arasso? So hands off!”

“I don’t see your name engraved on her...” Jae felt the need to irritate his roommate further, as pay back.

“It’s hidden,” Young K leered back, “only I can see it.”

Causing Sungjin to hit him on his head.

“Stop being disrespectful to our cordi,” the leader scolded him.

Before being joined by the two maknaes.

They were all talking like she was not there.

Completely forgotten she was still standing by the bathroom door.

And she knew it would be a while til they remembered.

Shaking her head, she simply sighed and went into the commode to take her refuge while they argued.