Chapter 7

“Why is everyone acting weird today?”  I glanced around the building and saw people rushing around with flowers and boxes.  Psy-oppa looked around the lobby and turned his attention back towards me.

“Oh, today is---”

I felt a buzzing in my pocket and I saw it was Mina calling.  I held up my finger and that instantly silenced the man in front of me.

“Sup .”

“Guess where I am right now?  Oh, I’ll tell you.  I am currently sitting in an airport waiting to board my flight to mother-ing KO-RE-A.  Your parents told me about you coming to Los Angeles in a couple days, so I convinced my parents to let me meet you in Korea so we can fly up together!”

I jumped up and down in the lobby and started swinging my arms in the air.  Psy-oppa gave me a weird look and I only laughed in response.  I couldn’t contain my excitement over what my best friend had just told me.

“When, when are you arriving?  I will pick you up and we can go and see the sights and---”

“Woah, slow down there,” Mina said laughing into the phone.  “I think my plane leaves in a couple hours so I wont get there until tomorrow.  But I will text you my flight information and everything and I shall see you in mother-ing KO-RE-A tomorrow!”  I laughed at her pronunciation and hung up the phone with her.  Moments later I received a text message with her flight information.  I hadn’t felt this excited in a long time and I was so happy that she was finally visiting me while I was away for work.

“You curse a lot in English,” Psy said as I sat back down next to him in the lobby.  I rolled my eyes at him.  “Is someone coming to visit you?”

I nodded my head excitedly.  “Yes, my best friend is flying in tomorrow!  I’m so excited!  You’ll love her oppa, she is a great drinker and she’s super fun.”

Psy laughed at my enthusiasm and ruffled my hair.  I smacked his hands away from my head and gave him a glare.  I bit down on my lower lip and thought to myself what we were talking about before Mina called.

“What were we talking about before?”

Psy rubbed his chin and leaned back in his chair.  I did the same and we both thought to ourselves, not remembering what only happened a few moments ago.  We both shrugged and stood up from our seats.

Hm, doesn’t matter.  Probably wasn’t important anyway.

“_______-sshi,” I heard a voice call to me.  “Did you get the approval from your boss to print the posters full size?”

I nodded my head towards Psy-oppa’s manager and he bowed his head in response.  He continued to talk to the staff about Psy’s recent scheduled trip to the States that was coming up.  Justin Bieber’s manager got a hold of Psy’s manager and the two were arranging for a meeting sometime soon overseas.  Psy-oppa begged me to come along with them because of my fluency in English and because he said he didn’t want to be left alone with his boring manager the entire trip.  I agreed to come under the condition that we visit my family briefly before we return back to Korea.  Psy-oppa happy agreed to the deal and told his manager to book me a ticket to Los Angeles as well.

“Did you tell your parents you’re coming home?” Psy-oppa whispered to me as he leaned over in his chair.  “They must be excited.”

I nodded and smiled.  “They are super excited.  They can’t wait to meet you too.  I told them about you so they want to personally thank you for watching over me.  I left out the part of you annoying me every second, so don’t worry.  I made you look good.”

Psy-oppa flicked my forehead and I groaned in annoyance.  I rubbed the spot he hit and checked my phone to see if Mina had boarded her flight yet.

“Jay-sshi said he’s been trying to get in contact with you,” he whispered to me again.  I looked up and met his eyes.  “Have you been ignoring him?”

I shook my head.  “Aniyo, you know how busy I am.”

“I think you’re just too busy running off with the Big Bang guys and their friends,” Psy joked to me.  “Also don’t try to hide your call log from me.  I saw all those calls Jiyong-sshi makes to you.  What’s going on with you two?”

“You looked through my phone?” I asked shocked.

“Friends share.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes.  “It’s called an invasion of privacy.  And because of that, I am now adding a password lock to my phone.  I hate you.”

Psy-oppa laughed and sat back nicely in his seat.  “Whatever.  Also, stop ignoring him because he keeps bugging me about you.  Handle your men, will you please?”

I shook my head at him.

“You still didn’t answer my question,” Psy-oppa said once more.  “What’s going on between you and Jiyong?”

We were friends.  Friends and nothing more.  As much as I hated to admit we were even friends, I had already known that I considered him that.  I liked hearing his voice at the end of every day before I went to bed for a couple hours.  I liked him making sure I was eating okay and making sure I slept enough.  I liked when we teased each other and played pranks on one another.  He kind of felt like a weird older brother to me.  I just liked being around him. That didn’t mean I thought anything more of our friendship.  I just liked him as a friend.

“We’re friends.”

Psy-oppa rolled his eyes at me and turned back in his seat.  “Yeah, like I never heard that excuse before.”

After our staff meeting I headed towards the employee lounge to rest for a bit.  I tucked a piece of loose hair behind my ear and looked down at my phone.  I noticed a new text message had arrived while I was in the conference room.  I clicked it and saw Jiyong’s name.  Speaking of the devil.

Remember we’re going out to eat tonight.  I will pick you up at 7 pm. :)

I scrunched my nose and scratched my forehead.  I didn’t remember making any dinner plans with him tonight.  I began to type back on my phone.

When did I agree to have dinner with you?  You can’t make plans with me when I’m half asleep, that’s not fair.

I hit the send button and I relaxed into the couch that was before me.  I propped my feet up on the table and took a sip from the coffee I just bought.  A small buzz gathered my attention and I saw it was an incoming text.

Too bad.  I’m coming at 7.  Be ready.

I groaned and threw my head back.  I was planning on cleaning my apartment before Mina arrived tomorrow morning.  But I guess I was going to have to hold off on that since apparently I had dinner plans with Jiyong tonight.

Fine.  Don’t be late.

I hit the send button and lifted my feet off the table.  I felt another buzz on my lap and I rolled my eyes.

:)

I laughed to myself and replied with one more text before I had to go back to work in my office.

Gross.  Stop that.

I stood up and walked towards my office in the back part of the building.  There was a small notice that was pinned to my door but I grabbed it and threw it in the trash before I had time to read the employee memo.  I began typing on my computer and getting through all my old emails before I had to get home and get ready for tonight.  I glanced in the trash bin and saw the employee memo staring back at me.

Nah, can’t be that important.

He was late.

My fingers played with my high heels as I dusted some more imaginary dust off the sides.  I wrapped my arms around my knees and looked back and forth down my empty street.  I glanced down at my phone in my lap and noticed the time.

7:14 PM

And he told me not to be late.  Psh.

Just on cue, his flashy Bentley car rolled up to my sidewalk and parked itself there.  I rolled my eyes at the flamboyant machine and began walking towards him.  Jiyong got out from the car and I stopped momentarily to notice his outfit.

“Why are you so dressed up?”

Jiyong looked down at himself and then looked back at me.  I thought we were just going out to get something quick to eat, so I decided to wear just some dark jeans, heels, and a simple dress shirt.  Jiyong on the other hand was decked out in a plaid suit with a black turtleneck beneath the suit.  His hair was styled more than usual and he had on more Chrome Heart accessories than a department store mannequin.

“I just wanted to dress up,” Jiyong said before opening the car door.  I stepped back towards my apartment and he gave me a confused look.  “What are you doing?”

“Jiyong,” I said slowly.  “I need to change.  Are we going somewhere nice?  Let me go change please?”

Jiyong laughed and walked forward to grab my wrist.  “Ah, we have no time.  We are already late for the reservation.  Just get in, you look great.”

Reservation?

“Reservation?”  Jiyong slammed my door shut and walked over quickly to his side to let himself in.  Jiyong smiled at me and then started his car.  He pulled out from the curb and headed towards a more populated part of the city. I looked out the window and noticed that this was one part of Seoul that I had yet to venture out into yet.  I looked at Jiyong’s face and noticed he had a small smile gracing his features.  Bored out of my mind, I glanced back towards his backseat and noticed a bunch of boxes piled up behind my seat.

“What’s all that?”  I asked him as I pointed towards the back.  Jiyong looked over to where I was pointing and shrugged his shoulders.  I turned to look out the window again and I began tracing small circles in the glass.  “Where are we going, Jiyong?”

“You don’t like surprises?”

“I hate them.”

Jiyong laughed and looked at me briefly.  “Well too bad.”

I sighed and sat back in my seat.

What was he up to?

We shortly arrived at a nice restaurant that was located in the heart of Seoul.  The valet man let me out on my side and I let out a small whistle as I looked at the nice restaurant that was in front of me.  I quickly let myself in before Jiyong, scared that photographers would catch a glimpse of us together.  I waited for Jiyong inside the restaurant’s lobby and awkwardly tapped my foot on the tiled floors.  The couples around me were all dressed so nicely and I felt completely out of place with my jeans on.  I groaned in embarrassment and tried to look down towards anything but the stares of confused restaurant goers.

“There you are,” Jiyong said as he found me waiting for him.  “Lets go inside!”

A slender hostess led us towards our table, but first looking me up and down and then looking back at Jiyong.  I rolled my eyes and sat down in my seat, yanking my napkin out of her hand before she had the chance to put it on my lap.  Jiyong laughed at me and the hostess went over to do the same thing for him.

“Your waiter will be right with you, G-Dragon-sshi,” the hostess giggled as she walked away from our table.  Jiyong sent her a small smile and sneered at her aegyo voice.

“G-Dragon-sshi,” I said mocking her sweet tone.  Jiyong laughed at me and then leaned forward.  I never noticed his facial features before but he was actually a really beautiful man.  He had a nice sharp jaw line and perfect mono-lids that showed his nice eye smile.  He had some small wrinkles in the corner of his eye when he smiled, but I wouldn’t have noticed this if he wasn’t leaning so close towards me.

“Jealous?”

I rolled my eyes again and looked at the menu in front of me.

“Shut up.”

“You look nice tonight.”

I put my menu down and gave him an annoyed look.  He only laughed and held his hands up in defense.  “Okay, now you can shut up.”

“What!”  Jiyong smiled.  “You do!”

Glancing around the room again I noticed a few stares and whispers that were headed in my direction.  They were probably all wondering why G-Dragon was having such a nice dinner with such a common looking person.  I sighed and returned to looking at my menu.  Everything here was ridiculously over-priced.  And if I had remembered correctly I had promised him that the next time we ate out I would be paying.  Mentally slapping myself, I looked up to see him smiling at me.

“What?”

Jiyong kept laughing at me.  “Nothing.  Just order what you want.  It’s on me.”

Was he reading my mind or something?

“Oh no, its okay, I told you last time---”

“I know what you said,” Jiyong said to me as he called the waiter over.  “But I don’t care.  So deal with it.”

I laughed at his answer and leaned back in my seat.  He had a sharp tongue and I liked bickering with him, it was fun.  It wouldn’t be half as fun if he didn’t have the same sense of humor like me.  It was good to know that someone out there didn’t mind me saying whatever was on my mind all the time.

“So, why are we eating here again?”  I asked him as I watched the waiter pour some water into our glasses.  “You still never told me.”

Jiyong thanked the waiter and shrugged his shoulders towards me.  “I don’t know.  I just wanted to spend the night with my best friend.”

Best friend?

Jiyong noticed my face and smiled at me.  He began putting butter on a piece of bread and then slowly pushed the piece on my plate.  I watched as he did this, but I kept thinking back to the words he just called me.  Best.  Friend.

“Youngbae will get mad if you say that in front of him,” I said as I picked at the piece of bread Jiyong gave me.

“You can have more than one best friend, ______,” Jiyong said as he gave me another piece.  I groaned at him and lifted my hand up, showing that I didn’t want anymore.  Jiyong nodded and gave himself another piece.  “Why, do you not like that title?  I can give it Seungri if you want, you know he would love it.”

I laughed at him and took another sip of my water.  “No its fine, call me whatever you want.  Just don’t expect me to call you oppa or anything like that.”

Jiyong pouted, “I don’t understand why you call everyone else oppa but not me.  I actually really like that name you know.”

I rolled my eyes and ran a hand through my curled hair.  “Of course you love that name.  Every girl in the building calls you that.  And I don’t know, you just done seem like an oppa to me.”

Jiyong frowned a bit and looked down at the plate in front of him.  I noticed for a split second he looked disappointed in my response, but then again it was only a split second before his famous smirk appeared.

“Its because I seem more like jagiya, right?”  Jiyong said laughing as I rolled my eyes at him.

“You’re gross.  I should leave right now.”

“But then you’d miss me.”

“Get a new line.  You’ve overused that one.”

Jiyong clapped his hands by his mouth and silently laughed to himself.  He always found the smallest things so amusing to him.  He had the most addicting laugh too.  He used his entire body to show how much he was enjoying someone’s humor.  I couldn’t help but laugh when he laughed.  I smiled back at my friend and began eating on the bread he yet again put on my plate. 

“Why are we here?  This is so cliché,” I told Jiyong as we ventured up higher towards the top of Namsan tower.  “Aren’t people going to notice you?”

Jiyong shrugged his shoulders and pulled his turtleneck up higher by his face.  I laughed at him.  Like that was going to do anything.  After a few more minutes of silence, we made it to the top of the tower.  Jiyong and I looked over the city and admired the twinkling lights that were greeting us.  Jiyong took out his phone and took a picture of the view.  He turned towards me and snapped a picture of me looking out at the view.  I heard the shutter sound and gave him a small glare.  Jiyong laughed and I heard a second shutter sound.

“Jiyong!”

Jiyong laughed as he looked at his pictures.  “I like the second one better.  That’s your natural face that’s why.”  He showed me a picture of me giving him a glare and I shoved his hands away from me before he could take more pictures.

“I only came up here once when I was in high school,” Jiyong said as he leaned over to see more of the city’s view.  “I think I took a girl here and we carved our name somewhere.  Cute, yeah?”

“So romantic,” I said I clasped my hands together and batted my eyelashes at him.

“So do you consider this romantic then if I write our names in permanent marker?” Jiyong said as he grabbed a permanent marker from his pocket.  I looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

“No, I consider it weird and awkward,” I said to him.  Jiyong laughed and ignored my comments.  He bent down and started writing something on a hidden part of the wall.  I leaned over his head to get a better view but he kept blocking me with his head.  I pushed down on his head and looked at what he was writing.  He let out a small laugh and I continued to push down on his hair to see what he was doing.

“There, finished,” Jiyong said as I got up with him.

August 18, 2012

Jiyong and ______

Best friends forever!

I turned and gave him a look and he only laughed and wrapped his arms around my shoulder.  I looked at him and realized this was the first time he actually did this to me.  Usually I didn’t mind the other boys and their skinship, but me and Jiyong never really engaged in that.

“Best friends forever?”  I shrugged his arm off me.  “Are we like five years old or something?”

Jiyong pouted and wrapped his arm around my shoulder again.  He rested his chin on my head and let out a small laugh.  “Shut up, let me just enjoy this moment.  You ruin such nice moments.”  He grabbed my other arm and placed it on the other side of his waist.  My eyes widened as he did this and he laughed into my hair more.  I tried with all my might to get away from his death grip but he wasn’t letting me go.  We both walked down the tower and Jiyong still wouldn’t ease up on his hold on me.

So awkward.

“Let me go,” I said as I tried to run away from him.  Eventually getting out from his hold I ran in front of Jiyong and gave him a small smirk.  Jiyong laughed and began chasing me down the way.  He eventually came up behind me and grabbed me by the waist and threw me around like a rag doll.

“Jiyong, stop!”  Jiyong laughed into my back and placed me back down on the walkway.  I roughly pushed him in the chest and that only earned more laughter from Jiyong.  His head was between his knees as he tried to control his laughing.

I turned to look at him and I scratched my head in confusion.  He was showing so much skinship tonight and it wasn’t like how we usually acted.  I didn’t really mind, but I just wasn’t used to being so physical with a guy friend like this.  Jiyong always was a very physical friend though.  I saw the way he leaned over Youngbae and Seungri’s shoulders when they were doing something, or sometimes he would just link arms with his friends and rest his head on his shoulders.  That’s just how he was I guess.  But he knew that with me that I didn’t really do anything like that, so he never tried anything.  But tonight he was being bold and it was making me feel weird.

“Come on lets head back down.”

I followed Jiyong down and he grabbed my hand as we both walked in unison.  I looked down at his hand in mind and I quickly drew my hand away from his.  He smiled at me and then tried to reach for my hand again.  I slapped him away and let out a small groan.

“You’re so shy!  Its just me!” Jiyong said smiling widely at me.

He tried once more and I slapped his hands away due to his irritation.  Jiyong shook his head with a small smile as we both made our way back down.

We both ended up at a small convenience store near my apartment complex.  Jiyong said he needed to buy more cigarettes and I was running low on some snacks for my apartment.  I wanted to re-stock before Mina arrived.  After scanning through the aisles and carrying a couple bags of snacks, I noticed a couple of teenage girls giggling with themselves.  They were looking towards Jiyong and I couldn’t help but laugh with them.

Probably fangirls.

I walked pass them and tried to grab some more candy that was located near them.  I heard them giggle some more and one of them whispered to the other.

“Should we say hi?  I want to ask for a picture but I don’t want to disturb him on his birthday.”

I dropped the bag of candy I was holding and I looked up at the giggling girls.  They were still staring at Jiyong and I made sure to follow their line of vision, to make sure it was actually him they were talking about.  Jiyong was standing near the register, getting ready to pay for his pack of cigarettes.

“No, lets not disturb him.  He must have just had his birthday party, look how nicely he’s dressed.  Oppa, is so good looking!”

I rolled my eyes and glared at Jiyong as he paid for his cigarettes.  I quickly put all my snacks back on the shelf and I followed Jiyong out the door just in time for me to smack him hard in the arm.  Jiyong turned around and gave me a confused look as he began to light his cigarette.  He took a long drag and blew the smoke out to the night sky.  He looked back at me and I slapped him one more time.

“What are you doing, weirdo?”  Jiyong asked laughing as I continued to hit him.

“Don’t lie to me, Jiyong,” I warned him. “Is today your birthday?”

Jiyong sighed and took another drag from his cigarette.  He blew the smoke out and tapped some rubbish off the end of his cigarette.  He turned towards me and leaned down to my level.

“Does it matter if it was or not?”

“Yah!” I smacked him once more.  “It is isn’t it!  That’s why you wanted to go out tonight!  Jiyong, why didn’t you tell me!?”

Jiyong laughed and let more smoke escape his lips.  “I thought an employee memo went out today from the President.  I guess you didn’t read it.”  He played with the sidewalk with his feet and shrugged his shoulders.  “Would it have made a difference if I told you?”

That’s what that stupid memo on my door was about? Ugh.  The one time I decide not to read those things.

I glared at him and yanked the cigarette out of his hands before throwing it on the street.  “Yes it would have!  I could have prepared something for you, or cooked you dinner!  I don’t know, something!”

Jiyong laughed at your flustered appearance and thought to himself how sweet you were for caring for him so much.  He only wanted to hang out with you tonight because he wanted to spend tonight with a good friend; he wasn’t expecting anything out of it.  Just good company.

“And why aren’t you with Youngbae or the guys?”  I asked as I poked his chest.  “Why are you here with me?”

Jiyong shrugged and kicked his shoes again.  “I don’t know.  I just wanted to spend time with you.  I knew you wouldn’t make a big fuss over it.”

“That’s because I didn’t even know it was your birthday!” I shouted at him with my hands on my hips.  I shook my head and turned away from him. 

I can’t believe he didn’t tell me the whole day.

“Yah!  Don’t be mad at me, its my birthday!” Jiyong joked as he ruffled my hair.  I stepped back from him and pushed his hand down.  “Don’t worry, the guys are throwing me something at Noise Basement tomorrow.  Which, you are coming to by the way.”

I shook my head and stomped my foot on his.  He groaned in pain and looked back up at me.  “No, I am mad at you.  I still can’t believe you never told me it was your birthday.”

Jiyong looked at me and smiled slowly.  “Well since you feel bad for not giving me anything, just come tomorrow and you’ll be forgiven.”

“Ahh, about that,” I said to him.  He gave me a confused look.  “My best friend is flying in tomorrow.  If she can come then I guess I can drop by for a while.”

Jiyong gave me a wide smile and wrapped his arms around me.  “Sure that’s fine, any friend of yours is a friend of mine.”

I noticed in the store that the two fangirls were staring at me and Jiyong with wide eyes.  Their mouths were hanging low and they were clutching their phones tightly to their chests.  I turned away from Jiyong’s grasp and stepped back a few steps.  Jiyong noticed my actions and looked towards the store where I had just looked in.  He nodded his head and ushered me towards his car before any pictures were taken.  I climbed into the passenger seat and Jiyong climbed into his side as well.  He drove off to the direction of my apartment and I looked back towards all the boxes behind me.

“You sure got a lot of presents,” I said looking at his profile.

He smiled and smirked towards me.  “Don’t worry, I will get you more for your birthday.”

I shivered at the thought of my own birthday.  My birthday was supposed to fall on the week after my contract with YG would end.  Thinking about that made my stomach feeling weird and uncomfortable.  I looked out the window and saw the city’s lights greeting me.  I sighed and looked back towards Jiyong, he had a small smirk on his face and he turned his head to give me a wink.

I sighed.

1 month and 25 days.

A.N.

I officially have the best readers, subscribers, and commenters on the board!  Thanks for all the support guys!  :D  It really means a lot to me!  I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it!  Thanks again for taking the time to read my story and once again, have a nice day and happy reading!