Chapter v part ii
This Love Undecagon...
Kass pulled out her phone and checked the time. 1:30pm. She had been running around the building all day. It was only her first week of work, but she already felt as though she knew the JYPE building inside and out. She leaned against a wall in one of the more quieter hallways. There wasn’t as many offices on this level and the quiet allowed for a much needed break. She really didn’t mind though, she liked running around and meeting new people, and unlike the crowd at her old bar, everyone was friendly and welcoming. Although she had to admit, being in a building with idols all day just made it that much better.
Her stomach began to growl, interrupting her thoughts.
“Lunch time,” she said to herself. Kass hadn’t had a break since 7am this morning and she was starving. She grabbed her backpack that was lying beside her and made her way to the cafeteria. As she walked down the long corridor another figure made its way into her view.
“Unnie!” Kass called out, jogging towards a surprised looking Fuu.
“Oh, Kass-ssi, hi.”
“Unnie! Did you have your lunch break yet unnie? Let’s go together!”
With renewed energy, Kass linked her arms around Fuu’s before the older girl could reply and dragged her all the way down to the cafeteria.
The JYPE “School Cafeteria” was empty save for a few late lunch goers. Kass found an empty table in the middle of the cafeteria as she pulled Fuu along with her. She placed her bag on top of the table to mark it as “occupied”, though there wasn’t really a need to reserve the table.
“Unnie, did you bring your own lunch today? Mai-umma made me some kimbap this morning.”
“Mai-ssi made some for me as well,” Fuu replied, taking out the Hello Kitty lunch container her roommate had prepared for her before she left for work.
“Yay.” Kass bounced on her heels as she pulled out a chair and pushed Fuu to sit down, taking the seat next to her as well. It was a relatively large table, especially for two people as it could fit several others. Fuu looked over at her and giggled quietly, and Kass beamed.
“Ugh, I’m so hungry! Why does Mai-noona make us practice so much?”
“Quit complaining, and don’t let her hear you say ‘noona’ Chansung-ah. She’ll kill you.”
Kass looked up to see Chansung, Junho, and the rest of 2PM come walking in from the main entrance, and she bounced up from her chair to wave at them enthusiastically.
“DONGSAENG!” She saw Chansung’s face light up as he walked towards her, dragging Junho with him.
“Why is the cafeteria so empty today?” Wooyoung she thought it was, commented.
She counted all seven heads as they one by one positioned themselves on the table she and Fuu occupied. Two, however remained standing, and she recognized them as Kim Junsu and Nichkhun.
“Hyung! I want the King Set, and some additional rice!”
“Hyung, make sure you pick the chicken that looks the most tender and fresh before you get it!”
Kass tried to ignore the rest of the chatter as the other members gave out their lunch orders to the two males standing at the end of the table. She tugged at Junho’s sleeve to catch his attention, but Junho’s eyes were directed towards the other end of the cafeteria, where the side entrance that led from the main offices was located.
“Junho-ah!” Kass said, tugging harder at his shirt.
Junho turned to look at Kass; he still looked dazed as if he were waiting for someone to arrive. “Huh? What is it?” he asked.
“What’s going on?”
“Junsu-hyung and Khun-hyung are buying lunch,” he replied, his eyes darting towards the cafeteria entrance once more. “They made the most mistakes in practice today.”
Junho finally smiled, his eyes disappearing into tiny slits on his face. Kass stood up from her chair as she saw a figure walk in and waved her arms around again, “Mai-umma! Come sit with us!”
Mai looked over to the sound of her voice, and began to make her way over. Her roommate approached them as some of the guys turned to say their hellos. She nodded to them before finding her way around to Kass’ side, stopping by the edge of the table.
“Kass, do you really need to call me umma at the top of your lungs? It really, isn’t necessary.” Completely missing the seriousness in her statement, Kass pouted at her unnie instead.
“But I like calling you umma,” she replied innocently, pulling her lips to the side.
“Yeah, you’re such a good umma,” Taecyeon chimed in, mimicking the facial expression of the younger girl seated at the table.
Kass stuck her tongue out at him, and Taecyeon flashed her his toothy grin in response.
The corner of Mai’s mouth turned up in a smirk. “Well, umma is going to work you extra hard in practice after lunch.” The table erupted in snorts and quiet laughter as Taecyeon slowly shook his head at the standing girl and pursed his lips. Mai kept her smile, her eyes flicking upwards before she grabbed her lunch and moved around the table, stopping by the maknae.
“Jay, move over,” Mai called over in English as she seated herself in between Chansung and Wooyoung.
“What?”
Kass looked over to where Renn had suddenly appeared beside the leader, surprising both Jay and herself.
“Unnie! You just came out of nowhere! When did you get here?”
Renn tilted her head to side a bit before taking the empty chair next to Jay, “I came in a little while ago. You were busy calling Mai umma so you didn’t notice me, I’ve been here as long as she has,” she replied with a tiny grin.
Kass nodded, looking around the table where all eleven of them sat. She knew all of them by face and name but she had not been formally introduced to the most of the guys.
“Oh that’s right, we have new people.”
Everyone turned towards Renn who had suddenly spoken up. She smiled and gestured towards Kass and Fuu who were sitting next to each other on one end of the table, “Since it seems we all found each other like this they might as well be formally introduced. Guys, these are our new roommates, Kass and Fuu. Kass works under Coordi-unnie so you’ll see her running around, and Fuu works under graphics. Let’s all be friends ‘kay?”
Kass and Fuu both smiled at the members who were now all looking their way. Kass noticed Taecyeon looking over at Renn as if he was waiting for her to continue, but her unnie had already stopped talking.
“Wait, that’s it? How 'bout us?” he asked, eyeing the girl that sat beside his leader.
Renn raised her eyebrows, but it was Mai’s voice that answered instead. “Kass, Fuu Mi. This is 2PM.”
There was silence, before all the guys turned to the speaker in bewilderment. The table suddenly exploded in chatter as they all complained of the lack of an introduction. Kass giggled, watching them direct their complaints to Mai who seemed oblivious to all the protests as she innocently opened her lunch.
Fuu looked around the long table, trying to memorize all the names she had just learnt and associate them to the faces of the individuals sitting next to her. It was her first time meeting 2PM, she had heard of them as a group, but had never met them individually. Movement caught her eye from the across the table. If she remembered the introductions correctly, the one sitting next to Renn was 2PM’s leader Jay Park. Fuu couldn’t help but feel as if there was something out of place, but she couldn’t quite put a finger on it. They weren’t speaking to each other, but she felt like the pair was silently conversing with little interactions Fuu assumed with which they didn’t think anyone would notice.
Next to Jay sat Junsu who was busy with his food, looking up every now and again to comment randomly in an odd dialect. Nichkhun, who was beside him, was looking at him funny and asking him to repeat whatever random comment he had just said in standard form. The last person on that side of the table was Taecyeon, the one who had helped her bring her box up to her office. She definitely remembered him, he had left a firm imprint.
On her side of the table, right across Taecyeon was Wooyoung who seemed very engrossed with his chicken meal. Mai sat next to him with an arm on the table shielding her food from Chansung whose chopsticks would ever so often cross over to both her lunch box, and to the lunch located on his other side. Junho didn’t seem to care when Chansung stole his food, and Fuu could only wonder why his earlier cheerful expression had disappeared.
The younger girl beside her abruptly stood up and pulled on her backpack, her eyes focused on the phone in her hand.
“Where are you going Kass-ah?” Junho asked, looking up at the girl.
“Coordi-unnie’s looking for me. I have to go, like, now.” She pouted. “Something about the wrong stage outfits. Sorry. Maybe I’ll see you guys later?” She flashed a quick smile before bowing to the group and rushing off. Fuu was amazed at how much energy that girl had in her. She wondered how Kass could run through all her errands and still be so cheerful at the end of the day.
Before she could comment Mai had stood up and dropped her bag loudly on the table. The older girl briefly gave a once over to the members who were finishing their lunches.
“Time to go.” Fuu watched as the boys began to voice their complaints. “Break’s over. Practice room. Now.” She grabbed her bag as she made her way out of the cafeteria, not bothering to check if the guys were following. The boys were still lazying about the table, whining to no one in particular.
“I don’t here footsteps,” Mai shouted jokingly. “You know I’ll just make you do double time if you don’t practice now.”
“Noona’s worse than Namyong-hyung,” Chansung whined.
“I heard that,” Mai called back from somewhere down the hall.
The members got up unwillingly and dragged themselves out of the cafeteria. In a matter of seconds, Fuu found herself alone at the large table; Renn had vanished without anybody noticing. She sighed and decided to get back to work as well. Grabbing her bag from the floor and Hello Kitty lunch box from the table, Fuu made her way out of the cafeteria.
She stepped inside the elevator as she stuffed the lunch box into her bag. Without looking, she pressed the button corresponding to the floor she worked in. The elevator came to a halt and Fuu hopped off. She began to make her way towards her office when she noticed that the signs on the office doors were not written in roman letters.
She tilted her head to the side to make sense of the hangul, but her memory was failing her. She looked left and right to find a person to ask which floor she was in and how to get back to the Advertising floor.
“Lost?” a voice in English spoke. Fuu turned to see Taecyeon and Nichkhun standing right in front of her. She nodded sheepishly, feeling her cheeks heat up. Her sense of direction seemed to have failed her once again.
“You work in graphics, right?” Nichkhun asked, smiling.
Fuu nodded again, her Korean was minimal, but her English was much better. “I think I’m on the wrong floor.”
She could hear both men chuckling softly at her, and Fuu’s eyes dropped down to her feet.
“Advertising is a floor above us, I can walk you to your office, I still remember where it is,” Taecyeon stated, then turned to Nichkhun. “Khun, I’ll see you after you talk to Minjae-hyung then.”
Nichkhun hummed a quick reply and continued along the hall. Fuu’s eyes were still on the floor, only looking back up when she heard Nichkhun’s footsteps fade as he walked away.
“Shall we get going then?” She looked over to see Taecyeon grinning at her. She felt her stomach flip but shrugged it off. Again she just nodded and followed Taecyeon as he led the way.
“So, how was your first week?” he asked, as they entered the elevator; Taecyeon pressed the button to the corresponding floor.
“It was interesting, thank you for asking.”
“Interesting?”
Fuu nodded. “I learned a lot of new things. My Korean is not that good yet, so I’m learning something new everyday.”
“That’s great,” Taecyeon replied, “Just don’t get lost, again. You’re lucky Khun and I had to go see Coordi-noona.” He grinned at her, showing her a row of too straight teeth.
Fuu looked up at him and smiled back sweetly, “Thank you again for helping me.”
The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors slid open. “I guess I’ll see you around,” Taecyeon said, holding the door open for her.
Fuu stepped out and waved at him, waiting for the elevator doors to close again before turning around to head to her office. She reached her cubicle and immediately resumed working on the posters she was editing. She smiled to herself as soon as 2PM’s group shot appeared on her screen. She looked over her cubicle, to her sides, and behind her before zooming in on Taecyeon’s face. She couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face as she covered with her hand. It had definitely been an interesting week.
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