When my alarm rang, it made my heart skip a beat, my upper body unconsciously got up, I pushed my blanket away, turned out the alarm and was scared to death, even though my ringtone was just a cute Akdong Musician song. WHAT TIME IS IT?! 6:30AM. Huh, alright, I’m not late. I laid back down to my bed, tried very hard not to close my eyes and not to sleep back. These are the real challenges in life. Very soon I felt like I was already slowly shifting back to dreamland, so I rolled over to the edge of the bed and let my arm fall down. I knocked on Jimin’s shoulder, who was still sleeping on the mattress on the ground. I saw Tofu sleeping with him, right behind his knee area, very warm. Jimin always does this, stealing the love of my pet.

- Hey Jimin. Wake up... – I whispered, my voice was still hoarse.

He just turned over, shoved his face into the pillow and kept on sleeping. I sighed. His new hair still looked so soft, so I decided to mess it up. Honestly, no one can really mess his hair up, for some reason it always looked good. Alright. We’ve got to get up, it’s Monday. I couldn’t open my eyes, but had to pee. Thank god, I had to pee. I got up and with eyes still closed found my way to the toilet. I almost fell asleep in there too. This is not going too good. When I went back to my room, I had to do something, so that both of us would wake up completely. I grabbed my phone on the bed, and scrolled through my playlist. I had a fun 2010s playlist on my phone, from years ago. So that just meant one thing. We needed a party in here. And Party Rock Anthem is the perfect song for that.

 

- PARTY ROCK! YEAH! PARTY ROCK IS IN THE HOUSE TONIGHT! EVERYBODY JUST HAVE A GOOD TIME! – I started screaming the lyrics of Party Rock Anthem, my phone was the mic. – LALALA LA-LA LOOSE YOUR MIND!! LALA LA LAA LEE LEE LA LA WE JUST WANNA SEE YOU... SHAKE THAT!!! ... JIMIN WAKE UP, SING IT WITH ME! – I slightly kicked his waist, to wake him up. As I got no reaction from him, I placed my foot on his , waited for the chorus, and started tapping the rhythm on his buttocks. Tofu was more than surprised by the noise, she got up immediately and started jumping around excitedly – PARTY ROCK IS IN THE HOUSE TONIGHT!! EVERYBODY JUST HAVE A GOOD TIME ........ EVERY DAY I’M SHUFFLING!!! – I stomped excitedly on his butts, and he just started laughing so hard, with his face down. Since I didn’t know the lyrics properly, I changed our party song and the real party anthem.

- YEOGI BUTEORA – the song started, and it was these two words that made Jimin turn over to shout the next lines.

- MODU MOYEORA... WE GON PARTY LIKE HAHAHAHA – he laughed.

- LILILI LALALA – I continued vigorously. I FELT IT. He got up and we made sure we had place to party, we waited until the chorus.

- nanana nana nanana nana... WOW FANTASTIC BABY!

- DANCE!!! – I screamed and both of us started shaking ourselves like crazy. He banged his head in the air, his hair flying up and down, I was jumping, even on my bed, and doing mad dance moves that only my seemingly dislocated arms were capable of doing. Before the next chorus there was this high note and of course we thought we could pull off, so we just...

- Geneun goYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA .... WOW FANTASTIC BABY!!! – and again, we grabbed each other’s arms waving in the air, in different rhythms, to different beats, what our legs were doing i don’t know, but somehow he got his feet up on my bookshelf and knocked over some books and my clock. From the corner of my eye I just saw Tofu completely terrified, shocked and judged us harder than Hoseok when I told him I hadn't seen most of the Disney princess movies.

- BOOMSHAKALAKA BOOMSHAKALAKA OMG I’m TIRED – from this part on, I just laughed, and sat down to the floor, while Jimin was still feeling the music very much. Best part was when he suddenly picked Tofu up from the floor and started to waltz with her. Oh poor dog.

 

When the song ended, with a big smile on his face, he laid down on the bed.

- Ah, I’m sweat-tiiiiiing – he said.

- Gosh, me tooooo.

- Hey do you... smell something?

- Yeah, you – I said and we both laughed – Kidding, I’m stinking too.

- I really need to get a shower....

- Go, I’ll be making breakfast then.

- Alright – he got up slowly – Hey, do you still have some bigger T-shirts?

- Just take whatever you like – I pointed at my wardrobe.

- Maybe it’s time I take back what’s mine – he mouthed dramatically, while searching through my clothes.

- Don’t you dare – I raised my voice and heard him giggle. He chose one of my baggier white Tees, then headed to the bathroom, while I went to the kitchen.

 

I the music again, I liked listening to music whenever I was doing something. I took out some dog food, because Tofu's been waiting to eat since we woke up. I also poured some milk for her into a separate bowl, and for myself as well, as I decided to stick with my cereal. Simple and delicious. And I always felt healthy eating it, since I never liked drinking milk on its own. Jimin was pickier though. He liked to eat salad, whenever he could, so I searched through my fridge hoping to find something suitable for him as well. I took out all the grass I found... Oh I meant vegetable, and a small piece of chicken . While cutting up the cucumber, lettuce, tomato and whatever grass I found, I started boiling the water for the chicken, to save time. Soon I was ready with all the ingredients, just mixed everything together, cut up the meat, added to the big bowl and poured organic yogurt all over. Pity, I ran out of canned corn though, I liked putting it in my salads.

 

- JIMIIIIIIIIN!! WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING SO LONG?? - I shouted when I was ready with everything, including our morning tea.

- DON WAITWJF FOOO MERHKFK!!! - He shouted it back with - I'm assuming - a toothbrush in his mouth.

- WELL I WASN'T GOING TO, YOU SLOTH!

And I really didn't wait for him. I just now poured out my cereal into the bowl, or else it would have gotten soggy by now. Hmmm... yummy!

I took out my phone and checked what was happening in the world. Looked through my Facebook, Twitter, KakaoTalk and Youtube, if there was anything new. Jieun sent me some pictures of her fancy European food, so I sent her a photo of my fancy cereal. She had a trip around Central-Europe, I wasn’t so sure where she was at the moment, but the foods looked amazing. She said people over there loved using spices, especially paprika, and foods were more oily than here but like in the best way. She also told me Europeans either loved beer or wine, and they did have amazing drinks. She promised me she’d bring home the best ones.

I was just about to start a random video that Youtube recommended to me, when Jimin stepped into the kitchen.

- Heyo – he sat down across the table - now with perfectly styled hair, maybe just a hint of a very natural makeup, my white T-shirt tucked in his jeans, and he just looked so good. So simple but so great, just like my cereal. I was always amazed how quickly he could transform from my soft, messy haired homeboy into this completely different, handsome Park Jimin. Good Lord, what is wrong with my genes?!

- Heyo – I answered, and slid my phone towards him – Look at this.

- Oh, that looks awesome!

- She’s over there probably doing some European things, like drinking beer or I don’t know, eating all these amazing food... and I want to be there tooooo!

- Don’t even get me started – he held up his index finger – We will 100% get to Europe one day, and do European things and visit Disney-like castles and eat the real authentic spaghetti, alright?

- Hell yes. This is what I’ll be striving for. I’m going to save up my own money for that.

- Me too. Until then, let’s just eat our cereal and salad.

- I mean, your salad looks pretty damn good, I must say.

- Of course! Did you send her a picture so she gets jealous?

- Yeah, ‘cuz she’s the one who’s gonna be jealous.

- It’s worth a try though, we all love your salad – he took a picture and sent it to JiEun – Where’s the corn though? – he pouted.

 

- I’ll need to buy it soon, I didn’t even realize I ran out of it – I pouted too – Still good though?

- Wish we had corn, I got so used to it, to be honest – he started his meal – Hmm... yummy! It’s really good!

 

I already finished my cereal so I got up and placed my bowl into the sink.

- You’re working today?

- Yeah – he nodded – It’s autumn, people are motivated, lots of clients, lots of work to do.

- Hm.

- I’ll probably stay until 8PM.

- Oh My God. If you need a little break from people, just call me and I’ll bring you food.

- Hahaha – he laughed but I knew he was considering my offer.

- Can you wash the dishes for me?

- Sure, no problem.

- Alright, I need to prepare too. I need to look at least a little more presentable.

- You’re fine.

- You know what’s fine? Pizza. I don’t want to look like a pizza – and I went back to my room. I could still catch his “What the heck?-giggle”.

 

***

 

- Do you ever wonder what Tofu would say if she could speak? – Jimin asked me randomly on our way to Jungnang-gu’s Cultural Centre.

- Yeeaa! But I tend to rather not think about it. – I answered – I’ve done so many embarrassing things in front of her already.

- How do you imagine her speak?

- It’s funny, ‘cuz she’s so small, so I’d picture her speak like a kid.

- Yeah, me too. Like calling you mommy and stuff. But I’m sure she’d call me chingu, because we’re best friends!

- But she’s already 11.

- That’s like she’d be 60 as a human, no?

- Yeah!

- Oh my god, she’s a grandma!

- Oh sh*t, yes! – I gasped.

- We need to be so much more respectful towards her!

- I probably shouldn’t be calling her “gooood giiiirrrl, oh who’s my goood giiirrl! Yes You’re my girl”. – I mimicked the voice of the typical, a little over-obsessed-with-their-dog kind of owner’s voice. Yup, that right there would be me.

- Or you might reconsider always calling her your “white poopy”.

- She’s sometimes my “bad bxtch” too.

- OH MY LORD! WHY ARE YOU CALLING GRANDMA THAT??

- I don’t know!! – I panicked suddenly.

- If she could speak, she’d scold you like crazy!

- I am such a shameless kid! - at this point, Jimin was panicking so much, grabbing onto his hair, didn't know what to do. It felt like we were children, doing something terribly unacceptable and waiting for our punishment. I tried to find an excuse - Wait! I sometimes call her Snow White too.

- That’s not bad! That’s quite majestic, even! - he looked at me with hope sparkling in his eyes.

- I’ll call her like that more often! Yes, I'm gonna do that!

- You should! – he nodded in agreement. After about a minute, when we realized what we were actually talking about, we both laughed out loud.

 

He accompanied me to the cultural centre then left for work.

- Good morning, Shin Ji Hyeon-nim – I greeted our old receptionist lady, when I entered the building.

- Hello, EunMi. Everything’s good?

- Yes, I’m doing fine, thank you!

This place felt like home to me. I’ve been working here since I was like 16. Firstly, I did part-time student jobs, I sometimes came and helped in the cloakroom, I was also a ticket-collector, theatre usher. Then I moved on to volunteering next to the house manager, organizing events and shows and just slowly learning how things worked in this cultural centre. Here, everybody knew everybody so most people helped me out. Now I’m working here as let’s say a visitor services assistant, manager but I did all kinds of jobs. We were never a big organization. A little cultural centre with three smaller theatres, a library and some rooms and dance studios we could rent out. We were more of a like a neighborhood community friendly place. We wanted to keep this place simple and cozy, to attract average, working people in this district for a little entertainment after a week of exhausting work. We keep the prices reasonable, the building pretty and neat, but not intimidatingly fancy, and wanted to provide all sorts of acts and programs, so people don’t feel the need to travel far away for what they really needed. I think we’re doing a great job at having a stable number of audience and visitors who are always eager to come to our centre.

 

“Come to the meeting room.

NJ.”

I found a piece of paper sticking on the door of my office. It was Namjoon’s note, Chief Executive, head of our cultural centre. I pulled down the paper, entered my office, just took off my jacket and tossed it on the chair and went up to the meeting room.

 

 

- Good morning, boss! – I opened the door slowly, to see Namjoon and Young Sun in the room too.

- Heeey EunMi – Young Sun was flying towards me, with open arms and very warmly hugged me.

- Good to see you, EunMi. Come closer – our boss greeted me as well.

- Oh goodness, what’s all this paper? – I looked at the long table covered in all sorts of papers, contracts and so on.

- Listen, I had a fantastic idea – Namjoon started, while still arranging the documents around him – Remember we have an opinion poll, in the lobby, with the stickers and all?

- Yeah. People were surprisingly enthusiastic with those stickers – I laughed. That was my idea. I thought of having all the posters of all of our shows on one of the walls in the lobby, and have fun looking stickers placed next to them. People had to put the stickers on the shows they liked. I mean, it was just for fun, to make the interior a little more colorful, so Namjoon let me do it.

- I have this idea. Since a lot, and I mean an extreme amount of stickers are on the posters of exactly 2 shows, I’m sure we could attract people with those 2 shows?

- What do you mean?

- I meant, we could hold like a mini-fanmeeting or a mini-show, a mini-program with these 2 groups.

- Hm.

- Completely free, but with limited number of places. Why? It’s free, so people will come, but limited so these 2 artists will automatically have this celebrity-aura around them, that makes people drawn to them even more. This event would bring the audience closer to the artists, would give artists more exposure by all the photos and videos people make. It’s such a good opportunity for these groups AND for our cultural centre as well.

- We might have charity boxes, and turn the money to good purposes? – Yong Sun added.

- Amazing idea! – Namjoon snapped his fingers.

- That is actually quite cool... – I thought – Who are the groups by the way?

- Well, drumroll... – Namjoon tapped his fingers on the table, then proudly looked at Yong Sun – MAMAMOO's the first.

- Yaaaaayy! – she got up excitedly and started dancing around.

- Heeey, congrats! – I told her with the widest smile.

- Alright, not like she didn’t know... – Namjoon facepalmed.

- Not like I should only be happy about it once. That’s my grouuuup, giiirrll – she grabbed my hand and made me jump around with her. I just laughed.

- Anyway, we have to admit, MAMAMOO completely aced this opinion poll. But BASE_line did amazing too.

- BASE_line too?

- YAS GIIIRRLL! He doesn’t know it yet. We decided not to tell him because of his audition, but other members are read-daayyy – Yong Sun cheered.

- Awesome. So do you guys now prepare something? – I asked.

- Yeah, actually that mini-fanmeeting I was talking about. Maybe BASE_line  could pull off something that. Maybe a Q&A type, sit around and have a conversation type of program, because they never get the chance to do that, besides dancing. – Namjoon explained to us.

- But still, people are interested in their dance performances.

- Of course, they’ll do their regular thing too - but after that - I think a kind of fan-meeting could let them connect with the audience even more.

- And what are you guys doing? – I turned to Yong Sun.

- Probably singing... – she wondered – But I want a more lightweight and friendly atmosphere. So we’ll need the small theatre room.

- Alright – boss noted - I already had a talk with the members of BASE_line, they’d want a full on show, so I’ll give them the big one.

- Hm, alright – I noted in my little notebook too.

- Another thing, that’s really important is that you’ll have to take into consideration that people will have access to both programs. So someone who likes MAMAMOO can see BASE_line’s show as well, so make your shows interesting for all types of people, and of all ages.

- What’s the date?

- The weekend, Sunday. Is it okay?

- It’s OK for us, boss! – Yong Sun winked.

- I’ll inform Hoseok-sshi about that – I smiled.

- Awesome. The registration form is ready, I’ll send it to you EunMi. Aaand, look at this – he slid a piece of colorful paper under my hands on the table – Jung Il Wook-sshi has some designs for the leaflet.

- Great! – I picked it up.

- We’ll need to bring these to some of the apartment blocks nearby – he said, but it was obviously me who would do it.

- Alright, I’ll print these out and scatter them all over Seoul – I said.

- Awesome – he started clapping slowly as wrap up for our meeting – Alright, then we’re done now. Yong Sun-sshi, please update me with the whole schedule for MAMAMOO’s program, alright?

- Yes, sir! – she saluted.

- And EunMi, we’ll talk later, there are some new teams who wish to have shows here. We’ll need to select wisely.

- I’ll be in my office.

- I’ll send you their introduction videos and portfolios, after I’m done with all of this – he looked very seriously at the piles of documents he had in front of himself, some papers in his left hand and even more in his right hand – You can go now.

- Do you erm... need help?

- No, I’m fine – he bent his brows, while trying to hold some papers with his lips, picking up some more things with his hands but then ultimately dropping everything on the floor. He leaned on the table, froze for a moment, and we knew he was about to say something really ugly, but he never did. He was cool, he never cursed or lost his temper.

- We’re leaving then, boss – I opened the door silently.

- Goodbye boss, have a nice day.

- JUST ... one more thing – he raised his voice a little annoyed – Can you just not call me boss. It makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

Yong Sun and I looked at each other, and answered at the same time.

- Got it, boss! – we both ran away giggling. We’re so childish.

 

***

                                  

Eunmi:
Mr.Jung?

Mr.Jung:
No Hoseok-ah this time?

Eunmi:
Not today lmao I have amazing news, guy

Mr.Jung:
Spill it

 

Eunmi:
BAE_line’s going to have a full on show this Sunday. You guys will get the big theatre hall, with lots of people coming aaaayyyy!!!
*BASE_line lol

Mr.Jung:
You’re being so obvious, we know we hot
BUT WAIT WHAT? WHAT SHOW

 

Eunmi:
Call the members, it’s gonna be biiiig, prepare yourself!! AYYYY

Mr.Jung:
We didn’t even prepare sh*t, what’s going onnn???

Eunmi:
Calm down, the members already know everything. We just didn’t want to stress you out during your audition

Mr.Jung:
Awww really? You guys are cute ^______^
So?

Eunmi:
BASE_line was one of the most popular shows, these past months so Kim Namjoon-sshi wanted to give a little bit more exposure to you and MAMAMOO too.
You’ll have a full on show, a mini fanmeeting type of program, you know just to connect a lil bit more with the audience.

Mr.Jung:
U SH*T ME NOT GIRL :O

Eunmi:
It’s gonna be free for you guys.
But for the audience too. They’ll have to register on a form, there are limited places. But don’t worry, I’m pretty sure, no one will miss out on this chance! :)

Mr.Jung:
I dont care as long as we can show ourselves somewhere. If we can dance in front of people, thats really... just all we want
U R amazing! Thank you so much!

Eunmi:
No, you’ll have to thank Kim Namjoon-sshi.

Mr.Jung:
You know we couldn’t have done it without you :)

Eunmi:
Anyways, don’t forget to text him and thank him.
You know what forget it, you should call him or meet him personally, this is a really important opportunity for you!

Mr.Jung:
I know. I’ll do that!

Eunmi:
Btw... where the hell is your train????
IS IT LATE??

Mr.Jung:
Its only 10 mins late calm down

Eunmi:
You didnt tell me dumb*ss

Mr.Jung:
Hakuna your tatas

 

Oh well, 10 minutes matter, because I could have bought a cheeseburger and eat it. I got up, put on my headphones and went to the other end of the train station to buy a drink. Then I went back to the bench and waited for Hoseok’s train to arrive. I sang silently to the music.

Soon the train arrived, and I could already sense Hoseok’s energy from far away.

- HEEEEEYYY! – he shouted and waved at me like crazy, from the end of the train (I facepalmed so hard), then started running towards me. I slowly pulled out my headphones, put it back in my backpack carefully, then waited for him to bump into me with a big, friendly hug – HEEEEYYY EUUUNMIII! OMG YOU WON’T BELIEVE IT! THEY MADE ME DANCE BALLET!!!!

- WHAAAT?? YOU DON’T DO BALLET!?

- I DON’T!

- So how come??

- They made all of us do the things we were the most uncomfortable doing. So I saw another street hip hop dancer do belly dancing, like what the f? It was absolutely absurd.

- Hey, tell me everything while we spread these leaflets? – I showed him the leaflets I just printed out this afternoon.

- Sure, oh cool – he observed one in his hands – So, there was so much happening there!