Lunch with Big Bang

Chapter 4

Lunch with Big Bang

“Ahh, thanks to Melanie noona bringing my favorite lunch, I will eat well,” Seungri cheerily said before digging into his spicy barbeque chicken.

Melanie was visiting the boys of Big Bang and brought them all their favorite meals for lunch as a way to say she was sorry for spending so little time with them. As of late, Melanie had been spending most of her time with Jay helping him with the preparations for his big solo concert “New Breed Live in Seoul.” It’s been a hectic month of February with many hours of practicing for dances and the big b-boy performance that Melanie was doing with AOM for the concert.

Not to mention that Melanie has been doing a lot of other little things to help Jay with for the concert so he didn’t lose his head with anxiety.

But Melanie hadn’t really talked to Jay since the day they went out for ice cream a week ago. Sure, they’d talked during practice and the food breaks they had in between them and on the phone about preparations for the upcoming concert but none of those moments were appropriate for what Melanie needed to say. Everything Jay had said after interrupting the massage Melanie gave him that day had been in the back of her mind ever since.

Avoiding answering his statement, Melanie asked, “But why now? Of all times—”

“I know it’s unexpected and I really should have done this so many years ago but I didn’t want to do it before moving to Korea, or when I got back, and I guess I’ve always been waiting for the right time to say this to you. Then I thought about how it could but the careers we’ve both worked so hard to build up at risk and how we could get a lot of for it from the media and fans but I realized there’s never a right time for these things; you just have to do them. So Melanie, I wanted to say that I’ve had feelings for you for a very long time.”

Melanie felt like the world was put on pause. She literally could not find the words and felt like a fish out of water with the way was opening and closing repeatedly.

Jay leaned back and pulled Melanie up with him while keeping his hold low on her waist, “Look Mel, I don’t expect you to give me an answer to this tonight or not even the next day. I just want to know that you’ll at least give the idea of us together some thought and that you’ll honestly answer this one question.”

Clearing to shake herself out of her daze, Melanie lightly grasped Jay’s hand that rested on her waist to pull it down. “Go ahead.”

“Do you see me as a man and would you like to go out with me?”

If Melanie was being honest with herself, she knew that she got butterflies from Jay every once in a while and when he does his y dances on stage she knew she ogled him just as much as his fans. Hell, she even had some on and off again crushes on him but knew she’d never gain the courage to say it to him and she didn’t want to make their friendship awkward if he didn’t return those feelings. But here and now at this moment with Jay staring burning so deeply into her face and how brazenly he had asked her with her heart pumping so fast in her chest she felt as if it’d explode at any moment, she also knew that she had to own up to her feelings as well.

“We-well..uhm,” Melanie nibbled on her lower lip before nodding.

She was burning up with embarrassment and it didn’t seem appropriate to her to just outright say “yes” to his question — she had a feeling it would’ve come out awkwardly anyways — but she wasn’t alone as Jay’s ears were vibrantly red. Melanie began to look at everything around her but Jay’s face and since hearing her answer Jay could feel the awkward tension between them build up, so he turned his head away and rubbed his neck.

Jay laughed nervously, “Look I didn’t want to make you feel awkward about this and I hope that we can still be friends no matter what you decide on if we could be a couple.”

“Melanie!” Seungri called out, startling Melanie by how loud and curtly he said her name.

“Noona~! You weren’t listening to me!” he whined.

“Sorry, Seungri-ah. What were you saying?” Melanie apologized, staring attentively at him now that he’d shook her from her thoughts.

“Well, since noona’s listening now, I was asking whether noona was performing with us at the 3-day Big Show concert coming up this weekend.”

“I requested with Hyun Suk sajangnim to be off on those days since I’ll be performing with Jaebeom-sshi in the middle of those days. It wouldn’t be right for me to perform for two days and miss the one in the middle so Ji Hye-sshi is filling in for me,” Melanie explained.

“Aww but I was going to request for noona to dance with me!” Seungri pouted.

Jiyong, who was sitting in a rolling chair, rolled past Seungri and slapping the back of the maknae’s head. “She’s Taeyang-ah’s dancer. Stop being a ert trying to get Melanie-ah to touch your body.”

“Hyung, that hurts,” Seungri said, rubbing the back of his short hair.

“Look at him, he didn’t even deny it. He’s just complaining about Jiyong hitting him,” Seunghyun laughed.

“Taeyang hyung, you wouldn’t mind if Melanie noona was my backup dancer for once right?” Seungri asked.

Taeyang who was having a small discussion to the side of the room with Daesung answered, “Don’t drag me into this, besides it all boils down to Melanie and YG sajangnim’s decisions.”

Seungri gave a hopeful look to Melanie who in return laughed and ruffled his short hair.

“What would it matter since I’m not going to be there anyways?”

“Hmph!” Seungri pouted. “Noona was supposed to be on my side.”

“Jiyong-ah, how is my chubby baby doing these days?” Melanie asked, ignoring Seungri’s attempted aegyo to make her feel bad.

“Gaho is fine, getting fatter though.”

“That’s because you spoil him,” she giggled. “Always feeding him as much as he wants.”

Jiyong just grinned in return as he thought about his spoiled sharpei.

“And Taeyang-ah, how is Boss?”

“Doing good, he’s perfect actually,” Taeyang smiled.

“Yeah, which means that he still barely listens to his master,” Daesung commented with a laugh.

Melanie laughed as well and continued catching up with the guys until they each had to leave for their individual schedules. Although, since Taeyang was free from schedules for the rest of the day he invited Melanie to accompany him but Melanie declined his offer insisting that he should take this time to go home and get some well-deserved rest. Though they were all impossibly stubborn, Melanie made them all promise her that they’d rest well and take care of themselves before Melanie bid them goodbye. She too planned on resting well and treating herself to some relaxation just before Jay’s big concert because she had a feeling it’d be an event to remember.