December 2013

"Hyung!"

Bobby's sleepy eyes immediately lifted, when Donghyuk's sweet voice reclaim his attantion as soon as he entered in the pratice room. That night, at the midnight, he celebrated his own birthday in the dorm with the other members, with a lot of food and a lot of fun, but just after that he happened to stay up almost until the sun rises with Hanbin, just chatting and laughing on his bed and for too long, like their exhausted face perfectly reveal that morning. Rubbing a eye with a distract and tired gesture, Bobby walked closed to Donghyuk, regretting a bit the hours of sleep that he had lost the night before. 
"Yo!" he said, when he arrived enough close to him. His voice was tired, but even the lack of sleep couldn't deleted the usual trace of lively energy that always accompanied his greetings. "What's up, man?"
Donghyuk smiled at him and raised a fist to make it clash against his hyung's hand.
"You seems very very tired, you know?" he asked, putting his hand on Bobby shoulder. Kim Jiwon nodded in response and immediately a loud yawn came to pointing out how exhausted he was. 
"I know, I can't wait to return in the bed tonight. But it was really fun yesterday, I don't know if I thanked you guys enough for the party"
"You've done that enough already and there's no need to do that again. You know that we love to party too, even with training schedule planned for the next morning" both of them laugh for a little, but as soon they stopped Donghyuk drew his attantion on a new element of the training room that Bobby's hadn't noticed yet. "Anyway, Lisa came here a while ago and left that bag for you"
A little confuse, but mostly surprised, Bobby looked at the bag - a simple, purple piper bag with the silhouettes of a little, cute cat designed in a corner - and then he went to peek at what was inside. Immediately after the first glance, he recognized the familiar fabric of a hoody carefully bent inside the bag, which, without hesitating for a moment, he immediately pulled out. The hoody was pretty and simple - white, with black sleeves and hood -, but what made it special was the fact that was the same one that more than a month before he had said he wanted. They were on the set of Ringa Linga with the other members of the groups who had been chosen to take part in the music video of their sunbaes, when one of the backup dancers caught his attention: he hadn't even realized that Lisa, sitting next to Taehyun a few seats from them, had heard his words, nor would he have expected her to remember a wish that even he had forgotten he'd expressed. 
The appreciation must have been a clear feeling on his face, since Donghyuk began to stare at him with a curious look, while Bobby stared at his gift. Only after a few moments did he realize that he had remained silent for too long and, clearing his throat, he put the hoody back inside the bag.

"Um..." he started, suddenly embarrassed for some reason. "How long ago did she leave?"

"Not long ago. I told her to wait here with us, but she said she has a lesson with Parris Goebel this morning. She was in hurry, actually..."

"Parris Goebel? Woh..." he nodded and weighed the information Donghyuk had given him for a few moments, his gaze once again on the purple bag. After a little while, Bobby suddenly turned to Hanbin, sitting on the opposite side of the training room and analyzing the filming of the practice sessions of the last days. "Hanbin-ah! How long before start pratice?"

"Give me half an hour, I still have some notes to take" he immediately replied, without even looking up to avoid losing concentration. Nodding, Bobby decided not to dwell on all the scolding that they would soon received due to the imperfections of their new choreography, so he turned again to the bag and, after grabbing it, quickly informed Donghyuk that he would come back as soon as possible.

The dongsaeng couldn't help but nod and observe Kim Jiwon walking away from the training room.

It didn't take long to find it. Or rather, identifying the room in which she was training wasn't difficult, but to reach it without being seen was another story. After an amount of time that seemed too long to him, Bobby finally emerged victorious from his hard mission. Once he reached his destination, however, he didn't immediately enter in the room. The glass door that led inside let his gaze free to settle on her figure, at that moment busy in an absorbed stretching session, and he couldn't help but watching her for a while. In front of her, next to the large mirror that occupied an entire wall, sat Parris Goebel, intent on carefully observing every movement performed by her student. Not many minutes passed, however, before the famous choreographer became aware of his presence outside the treaning room. Raising one finger, Parris silently said him to enter and it was only when he opened the door that finally Lisa noticed his arrival. Every effort to reach that room turned out to be fruitful when, as soon as her eyes met him, Lisa gave him one of her brightest smiles.

"You shouldn't be here" the choreographer told him.

"Oh, I know. I'm sorry..." he immediately replied, suddenly stop smiling and giving her a respectful bow. "But it will take just a moment, I promise"

Parris stared at him carefully for a long moment, eyeing him up and down, but at the end she seemed to make a decision.

"Two minutes" decreed, standing up. Both the trainees bowed again to thank her and then they followed her with the gazes as she approached the exit. They didn't dare say a word until the choreographer closed the door behind her, leaving them alone.

"Happy birthday!" immediately exclaimed Lisa with evident enthusiasm, when finally she leave.

Jiwon lowered his head slightly before giving her an amused smile; she seemed so excited that more than his birthday seemed hers.

"Thank you" he replied, then approached her with few steps, lifting the purple bag to show it to her. "What is this?" he asked then, although he didn't really need a confirmation of the obvious.

"Your present" she replied without an hesitation. "Oh, I wasn't sure about the size, actually, but if it's not okay you can bring the hoody back to the store, they will not create problems to changing it..."

Even before she finished talking, Bobby shook his head to interrupt her.

"I'm sure it will be all right, this isn't the point," he said, and when she started to look at him with a confused look, he added: "You shouldn't have bought it for me..."

Lisa's lips curved into a sweet smile as she shook her head.

"Why?" she said. "It's your birthday, I couldn't ignore it"

"Just wishes would have been enough, you know..."

"And you know I don't like to limit myself to that" she said and then smiled again when she heard him sigh. She had expected this reaction when she bought that hoody for him, but this hadn't stopped her from doing what she had originally decided, like usual. "If you really can't accept it as a gift from Lisa as a friend, accept it as a gift from Lisa as a fan"

"It's even more embarrassing..." he admitted, trying to keep a serious expression on his face.

"Come on! Don't feel awkward, you'll have to get used to it, sooner or later"

"I don't think I can ever get used to such expensive gifts"

"That's the problem?" she asked at that point, unable to hide her surprise. "It didn't cost as much as you think and I'm pretty good at getting discounts, you know? Well, not everytime, actually... let's say I was lucky this time"

The lively tone of her response tore at him a smile, definitively depriving him of the false expression of disappointment that he had managed to imprint on his face during that brief conversation. As soon as she detected this change on his face, she immediately straightened her shoulders and gave him a smug grin.

"Just accept it" she firmly told him.

At that point, Bobby sighed in exasperation and finally nodded.

"Thanks" he said again, earning another of his favorite smiles on her lips. "But I'll remember it, when the day of your birthday come"

"Don't you dare" she replied; he couldn't help but laughing at the sudden change in her expression.

"Your reactions are always the strangest, you know?" he asked amused.

She crossed her arms to her chest and molded her lips in a small, annoyed pout.

"You should be used to it now"

Jiwon was about to say something again, but the sudden arrival of Parris Goebel in the room interrupted his response.

"Time's up" announced the choreographer, retracing the training room to return to her place.

Bobby nodded and briefly bowed in greeting to Parris, then gave a quick knowing look to Lisa before turning and heading for the exit. He didn't remember what he was about to say before being interrupted, but what he realized during that short way to the door was that he didn't want to leave. Not yet.

And then, all of a sudden, an idea crept into his mind and, before he could stop them, the words flowed out of his mouth.

Still on the entrance door of the training room, he turned back to Lisa, momentarily forgetting about Parris's presence.

"It'll be Christmas in four days" he told her, drawing her gaze on him again.

"I know..." she nodded.

"What will you do that day?"

Surprised by the unexpected question, Lisa remained silent for a few moments, a thinking look on her face.

"Um, nothing... sadly. I think I'll still be in this room to train" then she finally answered with a slight smile.

"And nothing else?"

"What else could I do...?" she murmured at that point, with a hint of confusion in her voice. But before she could even complete her question, Parris Goebel, a woman who in that situation should have won a prize for her patience, broke into their awkward conversation, clarifying everything with few simple words.

"He's asking if you have a boyfriend" she snapped, coming back to her seat.

Both the trainees seemed to remember only in that moment the presence of the choreographer in the room, but once the surprise for that sudden interruption passed, their reactions to what Parris had said were very different: Jiwon looked at her for a while, surprised by her words because, in reality, it wasn't exactly what he had in his mind, while Lisa tried to stop her face to suddently bursts into flames, but she miserably failed.

"What?" she murmured, but her question was covered by Bobby's voice, when he start talking at the same time as her.

"That wasn't what I meant" he hurried to specify, turning to her. He had to force himself not to bite his lips for the awkwardness when he saw her face so flushed. "Really, it wasn't this what I meant! I wanted to ask you... do you want to come to the soup kitchen with me?"

"It's not very romantic" commented Parris again, making the unfortunate Jiwon nervous for the umpteenth time.

"It doesn't... it doesn't suppose to be romantic, I swear!" he specified again. On the other hand, although she was still confused, Lisa seemed to have quickly recovered from the shock thanks to that phrase. "I know it's not your religion, but a hand at the church is always very useful and I was wondering if you..."

"Yes" she suddenly said, before letting him finish his sentence. "I would like to come"

"Really?" he asked, unable to hide the surprise.

"Really" she nodded, a calm smile on her face. "I'll not mind spending Christmas with other people, once in a while, and also do something useful"

"Oh, okay then... thank you" he said, suddenly quite satisfied. "We'll talk about it later, okay?"

She just nodded and, without another word, Bobby bowed for the last time to Parris, waved at Lisa and finally closed the door behind him, surprised himself by what he had just said and especially in front of whom. Before the threshold closed completely, however, he managed to hear a last comment from the choreographer that, for some reason, almost made him laugh.

"You two have a really strange way to flirt"

[ To be continued... ]

*****

Hello everyone! The author is back again!

I know that this story seems to haven't a plot and, actually, at the beginning there was no plot in my mind... but now there is - more or less, I'm still working on the details - so I hope to be able to satisfy you soon with the plot I'm trying to create. For the moment, you can consider these initial chapters as a sort of puzzle pieces, arranged chronologically disordered, but that putting them in order can create a sequence that will soon lead to something concrete, I promise. Personally I love the alternation between past, present and future, so I think I'll not be able to abandon this technique so easily... I hope you can still bear me for a while lol

And now let's procede with the things that I always say but that I'll never be tired to repeat! Thank you so so so so so much to all the people that have reading my story until now, to the ones that have voted for it and commented the chapters... you all make my day, seriously, and I'm so grateful everytime I read a notification from you! I'll always work hard to not disappoint you 💪

And I'm also so sorry for the long wait between the updates, but I hope you can understand that for me is pretty hard try to write quick and with the most corret english at the same time... speaking of which, as always I'm so sorry for any errors in my grammar; I'm try to write a little better day by day!

Finally we're at the end of this long and useless speech! Since this chapter is divided in two part, I'll try to update as soon as possible with the continue, I PROMISE!

Meanwhile, today I'll say goodbye to you with Lisa's favorite emoticon, so...

I'll see you at the next chapter,

bye bye, love ya 🙈