Chapter Nine

    “Wake up!” Nik knocked on both of the other girls’ doors, walking into Lily’s room without permission. Everyone was exhausted from the day before, but Nik and Aaron were accustomed to waking up before the crack of dawn no matter what time they went to bed the night before. Nik put a cup of coffee and a plate on the bedside table before flinging herself onto her smallest friend.

    “Giddoff,” Lily groaned but didn’t move. “Go wake Briley first.”

    “I brought coffee and bagels.” 

    Lily reluctantly sat up, shoving her friend out of the way to do so and then reaching out lazily in the direction of her promised coffee. Nik laughed and grabbed the drink for the still half asleep New Yorker. After getting enough caffeine in her system to halfway function, Lily followed Nik into Briley’s room where they both pounced on their youngest sister. “Wakey wakey, eggs and Baekie,” Lily and Nik said together, both half laying on the Brit as they poked her in the sides until she sat up, still squirming from being tickled awake.

    “I hate you both,” Briley whined but took the coffee offered to her, leaning back into Lily as Nik sat cross legged on the bed beside them.

    “Sure you do, that’s why you’re staying an extra week with us instead of going back home,” Nik winked. 

~katok~

     Nik’s face lit up and flushed slightly. She quickly opened it, ignoring the questioning looks her friends were giving her. She made an ‘eep’ as her eyes roamed over the screen. She quickly typed something out and closed her phone back up, looking back at her friends as she tried-and failed- to keep a neutral expression.

    “Ok, spill,” Lily said, stretching in attempts to see the oldest’s phone.

    “What?”

    “Oh my gosh was that Pilkyo?!” Briley squealed, finally fully awake after finishing her coffee.

    “I don’t understand,” Nik said, her face completely tomato colored and unable to make eye contact with either of her two friends. After a couple moments of staring, Nik finally broke and opened her phone back up to a photo of a disheveled looking Jung Pilkyo and the caption ‘Morning came too early’. They read Nik’s reply of having been up for nearly two hours. The girls then squealed excitedly when the phone ‘katok’-ed again.

LittlePrince

8:33AM Why did you wake up so early?

PandaNik:

8:34AM Aaron and I always wake up to go work out in the morning. Just habit. 

LittlePrince

8:34AM You went to work out after staying up so late last night? You sound like JJ kkkk

PandaNik:

8:35AM Ou, maybe one day while we are in Little Rock he would want to go to the gym with me

    “Oh my gosh!” Briley yelled.

    “You can’t say something like that!” Lily said. Nik gave her a confused look before her phone sounded again.

LittlePrince:

8:35AM You would rather work out with him? ㅜㅜ

PandaNik:

8:36AM You don’t like working out. You don’t like sweating ^-^;

8:36AM You could come with us?

    At that, Nik’s friends all burst out laughing. “You are a terrible person.” Lily rested her head on Nik’s shoulder as her and Briley continued reading this ridiculous conversation unfold.

LittlePrince:

8:37AM I would just be a third wheel

“Aww, you hurt his feelings!” Briley pushed Nik from her position in Lily’s lap. 

“Ugh, whatever. He has to know I didn’t mean it like that!”

PandaNik

8:38AM You could never be a third wheel! You and I can go work out together tomorrow morning before we head out to Little Rock if you want!

LittlePrince

8:39AM I don’t want to go work out

Nik let out a frustrated sigh and fell back against the pillows on Briley’s bed. “He’s going to be the death of me, I swear. Like, I know I used to claim that when watching music videos and lives. Ughhhh he’s killing me.” A scary look flashed through her eyes suddenly. 

PandaNik:

8:41AM That’s ok. I’m sure you’re just worried you couldn’t keep up. I understand, you are getting up there in age. Been on this planet 40 years this year. 

Both of her friends gasped as she cackled. 

LittlePrince

8:43AM You can call me old all you like, I’m still your bias! >.<

PandaNik

8:43AM Y’all are all practically the same age.

LittlePrince

8:44AM And yet you still chose me!

PandaNik

8:44AM I know, I must be crazy ^ㅂ^

“And violent,” Lily added. 

LittlePrince

8:45AM I’m hurt!

PandaNik

8:46AM Let it hurt, Let it hurt,
Let it hurt so bad,
Let it hurt, Let it hurt,
Let it hurt so bad

LittlePrince

8:46AM Did you just…?

PandaNik

8:47AM I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist. You can disown me now

LittlePrince

8:48AM I won’t disown you this time, but you are on thin ice ^-^

PandaNik

8:48AM Should I take that as a threat?

LittlePrince

8:49AM Am I not threatening enough?

PandaNik

8:50AM Not in the least. But that’s ok, you still have some good qualities

LittlePrince

8:51AM Why are my fans always so mean?

Lily laughed. “Violence attracts violence.”

PandaNik

8:51AM Lily says it’s because ‘violence attracts violence’. Btw the girls have been reading over my shoulder the whole time. 

LittlePrince

8:53AM Well then, I have something for Lily. Look who just came out of the shower

[image]

All three girls gasped. Lily’s face flushed as she fanned herself. The image that popped up was a lounging Choongjae in just a pair of sweatpants and still dripping wet, hair clinging and a shocked expression on his face. 

PandaNik

8:55AM Are you TRYING to murder my sister?!

LittlePrince

9:01AM HELP! JJ is trying to kill me!

9:02AM [video]

Nik dropped her phone. It appeared that Choongjae had managed to wrestle Pilkyo out of his shirt and had him on his back. The video was only about ten seconds long but it clearly showed a toned half dressed Pilkyo struggling to get his phone and shirt back with Choongjae laughing in the background. Briley picked the phone up before Nik could

PandaNik

9:04AM Congratulations, the two of you just killed my older sisters. I have taken Nik’s phone because she dropped it haha

Nik quickly grabbed her phone once she realized what had just happened. 

PandaNik

9:05AM Not dead, just momentarily paralyzed from shock

Aaron then walked into Briley’s room. “You were supposed to wake them up so that we could head across the street. You’ve been in here for over an hour. Are we gunna make it to any of the actual convention?”

Nik’s phone sounded but she didn’t look at it. “I’m so sorry, baby. Pilkyo started texting and we got distracted. We can get ready to go now if you want.” 

Aaron laughed. “So that’s why y’all got so loud. I’ll be practicing until y’all are ready to go.” As soon as he walked out of the room, they all looked back to the phone. 

LittlePrince

9:07AM We killed you? ^.~

PandaNik

9:10AM Of course not. ^_^;;

9:10AM Aaron just came in complaining that we are not ready to head to the convention. I’m sure y’all have plenty to get done this morning before the concerts.

LittlePrince

9:11AM If you aren’t busy later, we can get the 4 of you in during our rehearsal. 

PandaNik

9:12AM We can bring y’all lunch around 1 if you want?

LittlePrince

9:12AM YES! (•¯ ∀ ¯•)

PandaNik

9:12AM d(^_^)b See y’all in a little bit

Nik fell into Lily and let out a long sigh. “I’m so screwed.” She reread through the full conversation, mindlessly running one hand through Briley’s hair. 

“How are you screwed?” Briley looked up, confused. 

“I’m gunna end up actually falling for him.” She laughed and covered her face in embarrassment.

“Well then, let’s just make sure he falls for you, too!” Lily exclaimed. She dragged her reluctant friends out of the bed-with great effort- and they all went to get dressed for the day. The girls finally got dressed to head to the concert. They all donned denim shorts and a black jersey with their logo Fangirl Friday logo on it and their birth year on the back, 97 for Briley, 92 on Lily’s, and 89 on Nik’s. Aaron, who had been dressed for probably an hour, had the same jersey with 10 on his, but wore basketball shorts instead. As they grabbed up backpacks, Nik also grabbed her Shinhwa jacket from the day before and threw it on. Both of the other girls stared at her until she noticed.

“What?”

“Why are you wearing a jacket? It’s soooo hot outside!” Briley said.

“I’m from Texas, this ain’t hot. And we discussed this, I don’t wear tank tops.” She motioned to the jerseys each of the girls are wearing. “Besides, we all wore jackets yesterday.”

“Only inside during the meet and in the evening when the sun wasn’t blaring down on us!” Lily reminded. Nik just shrugged and motioned for them to head out the door.

Once at the convention, Aaron insisted on going to one of the RandomDancePlay events that was due to start soon so they all made their way over there. Once there, they took their place along other KPop fans and waited for the music to start. Of course the DJ started with one that most people would know, BTS’s Dope. Over time, less and less people were able to go out. The DJ played DB5K’s Mirotic and the four of them were almost the only ones out there this time. Aaron knew nearly every dance that was played, and the girls jumped in when they knew one. Lily knew most of the girl group dances while Briley and Nik were not as familiar with as many girl groups. Briley knew many more of the 3rd and 4th generation boy group dances than either of her older sisters. Nik knew every 2nd generation boy group and many 2nd generation girl group dance. 

After RandomDancePlay, they handed out some cards with their email addresses so that anyone that caught videos or photos could email them to go up on their channel. They then walked around until the next events started, talking with people that were also waiting around. 

The next event was one of the dance crews putting on a demo of the most recent bops that had come out over the past year. After the show, the girls and Aaron stuck around to talk with the dancers for a bit because Lily had gone to school with one of the teachers. 

Around 11:30, they all headed to the food trucks and booths. “What should we bring them? We said we’d meet them in about an hour and a half so technically we could go grab something else, too.” 

Nik double checked the time while Lily and Briley pulled up other restaurants nearby. They all sat down at a small table in the shade with some water from their backpacks. 

“Why don’t you ask him what they want?” Aaron asked. 

“They’re probably busy and he wouldn’t see the message until it’s too late.”

“Or you’re too chicken to text him first,” Briley teased. “Just ask. If he doesn’t reply in the next thirty minutes we can decide for them.”

Nik glared at her friend. “I am not chicken. I just don’t want to bother him.” She crossed her arms resolutely. After getting ‘the eye’ from all three of her companions, she rolled her eyes and pulled her phone back out. 

PandaNik

11:37AM Hey, forgot to ask what y’all wanted to eat.

11:37AM We can either bring food court food or run and grab something from somewhere else. 

Nik then shoved her phone into her pocket. “There, done,” she rolled her eyes again. “Want to run by the merch stands for the next twenty or so minutes?” They all agreed and stood up to head back to the vendor booths. 

~Katok~

“Well that was quick,” Briley smirked, slinging an arm around her friend so that she could see what was sent. 

“Guess he wasn’t busy, after all,” Lily agreed and did the same on Nik’s other side. 

“Hey, I wanna see, too!” Aaron complained before squishing between Briley and Nik. 

LittlePrince

11:39AM Whatever they have at the booths is good with unless you wanted something else

11:39AM Everyone said to just surprise us

PandaNik

11:40AM Is there anything that y’all absolutely don’t want?

LittlePrince

11:41AM None of us are picky. Just hungry

PandaNik

11:42AM Should we bring food sooner than 1?

LittlePrince

11:43AM No, we can survive another hour without food

PandaNik

11:43AM Idk, you’re pretty thin already. You might waste away before we get to you

“You’re so mean when you flirt,” Lily knocked into her friend. 

“I’m not flirting,” Nik grumbled. 

LittlePrince

11:45AM This is Minwoo. Pilkyo is temporarily unavailable. He had to go to the toilet so I grabbed his phone. 

Everyone laughed. 

PandaNik

11:46AM Minwoo oppa~  *(^o^)* How has your morning been? 

LittlePrince

11:47AM My morning has been great. What about you?

PandaNik

11:48AM We have had a lot of fun~~ Not as much as last night, but still a lot of fun~

LittlePrince

11:48AM Minwoo hyung gave me the phone. It’s Sunho now! (^_^)/

PandaNik

11:49AM Hiii! (^_^)/  -from Aaron

LittlePrince

11:55AM 1) I was not in the toilet, they all ganged up on me and took my phone. 

11:55AM 2) Why are you so much nicer to them? OTL

“Oh my gosh I can totally see them doing that! And uh oh, someone’s jealous!” Lily and everyone was laughing hard when Pilkyo finally texted back. 

PandaNik

11:56AM I had my suspicions

11:56AM Tell everyone that we didn’t get to message that we all said hi (^_^)/

She then sent a selca with all four of them smiling and waving at the camera. 

LittlePrince

11:57AM They all said hi

PandaNik

11:58AM Yayy~ Well we will see y’all in about an hour with food! ^-^

LittlePrince

11:58AM See you soon! (•¯ ∀ ¯•)

“They are absolutely ridiculous,” Nik laughed as she put her phone away. “So I vote we hit up every stall here for food, or would y’all rather go grab somewhere else quickly?”

“We’d have to grab a cab to get anywhere and be back quickly enough. I vote here,” Lily said. Briley and Aaron agreed with the older sisters. 

Aaron wanted to tag along with Briley, so the two of them hit up the closest stand. Lily went to the fusion truck that served kimchi and bulgogi fries. Nik went to one of the farthest vendors. Since they all placed such large orders and right at lunch time, it was nearly 12:45 by the time they were able to meet to head to the backstage where they had been instructed to meet the guys. 

“What all did you get?” Briley asked, staring at the 4 bags of food that Nik was carrying.

“Just some food that I know they like. Hoping it’s as good as what they usually have. We know it won’t be as good as Sunho’s or Minwoo’s cooking, though. What did y’all get?”

“Aaron said that he wanted to try Korean tacos, so we got a bunch of them and the fried chicken from the stalls we went to. Lily?”

“Kimchi fries and ddeokbokki.” 

Everyone was starving so they made their way into the concert hall to deliver food. Nik decided to message to let them know they were there. 

PandaNik

12:55AM Special delivery for Shinhwa!