Lazy Dog Day - Part I

ChoMin stirred with a start. She twisted and turned in her bed sheets, trying oh so hard to remain asleep, but the stubborn rays of sunlight infiltrated her dream world. She rolled over, pulling over the covers to block them out. But it was too late.

With a groan, ChoMin tentatively opened her eyes, but shut them instantly when the bright rays hit her sensitive eyes. She grunted, wishing the night was just a bit longer. Her bed was just too comfortable to get up from. ChoMin plopped over; still trying to shield her eyes from the sun, she stuck out a lazy hand and d for her glasses on the night stand. She scratched her head as a great big yawn awoken her senses just a little and she glanced around her sun basked room, finding her clock.

It read a little passed noon, to which ChoMin groaned for she wanted to beat her record of sleeping till 3 in the afternoon.

Only wearing YunHo’s old black oversized sweater, different colored socks, and her hair in a tangled ponytail, ChoMin dragged herself out her door, into the hallway, and in the living room where she was met with an unpleasant surprised.

            “ChoMin-ah! Glad that you’re awake!” JunSu exclaimed from his position on the couch next to BongCha and JaeJoong. “Um… you look…different,” he tactfully said, trying to mask his laughter.

If ChoMin wasn’t awake a minute ago, she was sure awake now. It was Sunday, ChoMin’s day off – one week and one day after almost getting kicked out of the apartment, a day were ChoMin should have had the apartment all to herself. But no – DBSK and a very unwanted guest was in the apartment, on the day she happened to look the most hideous. “ me,” she mumbled underneath her breath.

            “Mien, I didn’t catch that,” BongCha said, smiling at her with a superior air around her. She eyed ChoMin up and down, a smirk growing. She couldn’t understand with all her knowledge why THE YoungWoong JaeJoong would even be remotely attracted to that…thing standing near the doorway.

            “I-I didn’t think anyone would be home today,” said ChoMin, choosing to ignore BongCha’s little comment. She felt BongCha’s gaze on her, and feeling self-conscious about her outfit, she pulled down on the hem of YunHo’s old sweater to cover her legs.

Here BongCha was, in ChoMin’s own home, looking fabulous in her very simple, yet sophisticated orange baby-doll dress with white leggings and cute matching star earrings and necklace. Her hair fell in beautiful curls around her heart-shape face; her long eyelashes accenting her eyes, making them look bigger and prettier. Compared to the gross, drooled-stained-four-eyed slob that was ChoMin, BongCha looked every bit like perfection.

            “I thought we mentioned it yesterday,” said JaeJoong with a bemused expression as he sat drinking some coffee.

            “Oh, well I must’ve not heard,” she said with a fake smile. “Well if you excuse me, I think I’ll go freshen up a bit… yeah.” And with that she hurried to her room, mentally cussing out that girl trying to one-up her in her own home.

ChoMin rifled through her clothes, picking out the cutest outfit she could find. She broke out into a huge grin when she finally found something she thought could out-wow BongCha’s outfit. Wasting no time, ChoMin changed into short denim shorts, a red spaghetti strap shirt, and a large white t-shirt to which she cut off the collar so the hole was big enough for her shoulders to show. But what made her whole assemblé cute was imprint of all the members of DBSK drawn in chibi-form(*) on the white shirt. She hurriedly combed her hair, hissing every now and then when the snagged some tangles. She styled her hair up in a messy-but-chic bun and sprayed on a bit of vanilla perfume as a finishing touch.

Satisfied, she scurried out of her bedroom and practically sprinted towards the living room – only to find it empty. The only trace of BongCha’s and JaeJoong’s presence was the aroma of her expensive Chanel perfume and his empty coffee mug. Not even JunSu was in sight. She glanced to the kitchen where she spotted ChangMin’s tall back facing her.

            “Great, just great…” she mumbled. With a dejected sigh and a scowl on her face, ChoMin made her way to the kitchen and sat on the stool on the counter. She blew at her bangs and rested her chin on her right arm. “I dressed up, and nobody is here.”

            “Thanks for calling me nobody,” ChangMin called out with a chuckle as he stirred the pot he was cooking.

ChoMin chuckled but pacified him, “I didn’t mean it that way, and it’s just… I – You wouldn’t understand… ”

            “Let me guess,” ChangMin started, wiping his hands on a dish towel and made his way to the counter. “You felt intimidated because BongCha noona came here to the apartment, your territory, looking prettier than you?”

He smiled triumphantly when he saw ChoMin’s jaw drop in pure shock at his pin-point accuracy. “But I’m just guessing here.”

            “How did you KNOW?!” ChoMin exclaimed, jumping off the stool and walking towards ChangMin. “Are you like some kind of psychic? Can you read my mind now?”

ChangMin backed away at their close proximity. Yup, sometimes ChoMin can be just a little bit strange.

            “Miene,” ChoMin apologized, backing away towards the stove. She knew ChangMin had some personal space issues and she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable around her. “So what are you cooking?” she asked, trying to change the subject.

            “Stir the pot would you?” ChangMin ordered, walking towards the cutting board he laid out for the lettuce. “I’m making a stew and some lettuce wraps for lunch. Oh, while you’re at it, turn over the ground beef on the pan to your right – Ani! – your OTHER right, good.”

            “So ChangMin-ah,” ChoMin started, stirring the stew with her left hand and flipping the ground beef with her right hand. “Do you think BongCha-sshi and JaeJoong-sshi have anything going on between them? Just wondering…”

ChangMin raised an eyebrow, wondering where she was getting at, “Well, Noona and Hyung have a ‘special bond’. They’re like best friends, and well, while it’s really obvious that Noona is in love with Hyung, I really don’t think he feels the same way,” he said, slicing some onions and celery once he was done with the lettuce.

            “But then again, you can’t really tell with Jae-hyung. In my opinion, BongCha noona is the closest thing to a girlfriend to Hyung, but he doesn’t seem to have any ro – ”

She didn’t even hear the rest of what ChangMin had to say. ‘Closest thing to a girlfriend,’ she thought sadly. Her shoulders slumped as she didn’t pay attention to the sizzling meat she was stirring. ‘I knew I didn’t have a chance… but I always kept my hopes up just in case… closest thing to a girlfriend…’

Her thoughts on JaeJoong and BongCha’s relationship engrossed her more than she should have allowed it to. She was too caught up in her angst filled unrequited love that she didn’t pay attention to what her hands did. A loud clank reverberated through the small kitchen when the scalding hot pan dropped to the floor, all of its contents flying everywhere.

            “Son of a chocolate e!” ChoMin cussed in English as she threw herself onto the floor, clutching her burnt feet. “That ing hurts!”

            “Aish,” ChangMin shook his head, already on his way to retrieve a first aid kit. ChoMin hoisted herself up onto the counter near the sink, and let her red foot soak underneath a stream of cold water. ChangMin came back with a large first aid kit; earlier that month, YunHo had bought two first aid kits: one for the general use and the other, larger one, was specifically for ChoMin. It even had her name on it.

            “If it’s something I said about Hyung and Noona, just forget about it.” He handed her the first aid kit and shaking his head, he began cleaning up the mess she made. “I pity the poor girl who ever falls in love with JaeJoong hyung – he’s very picky about who he dates.”

            “I don’t need it,” ChoMin huffed with stubbornness; she dried her foot with a rag. She already knew that about JaeJoong. ‘Maybe it’s best that I just forget about him… Yeah…’ She reached for the slicing knife. “How about I do the cutting and you stir. Hmmm?”

            “Ani!” ChangMin exclaimed, diving for the knife in her left hand. He laughed nervously, setting the knife as far away from her as possible. “Listen, ChoMin-sshi. I really appreciate you helping me with lunch and all, but uh… I think I can handle everything here.”

            “But –” ChoMin countered, jumping of from the counter.

            “It’s OK!” ChangMin reassured, pushing ChoMin out of the kitchen. “Why don’t you rest? It’s your day off remember?”

            “You act like I have never held a knife before! Who do you think has been cooking for you these last few months?” exclaimed ChoMin with narrowed eyes. “Araso! If you don’t want my company, I’ll take it else-where.” With her arms crossed and her nose in the air, she limped out of the kitchen. In the entry way, she put on some flip-flops and headed out the door of the apartment, to the elevator shafts.

            “I’ll just head to the playground,” ChoMin said, getting off the elevator. By the ride down, her foot felt a little bit better to which the limp wasn’t so prominent. She shielded her eyes from the bright sunlight as she left the building via the back door. Within the little field hidden beneath the thick trees, ChoMin could make out the outline of JunSu a few yards away, bouncing a soccer ball with his knee.

            “Oppa!” ChoMin yelled, half-running/half-hobbling towards JunSu.

JunSu let the ball bounce on the ground and stopped it with his foot as he watched ChoMin’s figure coming closer. “ChoMin-ah! Are you ok?”

ChoMin puffed, catching her breath as she collapsed on the grass next to JunSu’s feet. “Oh this?” she asked, referring to her reddish foot, “This is nothing. I just had a little mishap in the kitchen.

JunSu snickered, collapsing next to ChoMin. He lay down on the grass with his hands supporting his head. Underneath the trees, he was able to look up at the cool blue sky without the irritating sunlight. “So what brings you out here?”

            “Oh nothing,” she said, uprooting some of the grass by her hand. “There’s nothing to do inside, so I figured I’d come outside.”

            “That’s nice,” JunSu retorted with mild interest.

After a 15 minutes of silence in which ChoMin and JunSu watched the clouds go by, ChoMin thought there was no time like the present to ask something that had been on her mind for quite sometime.

            “JunSu oppa?”

            “Hm?”

            “I want to know… why did you even like me?”

JunSu turned his head to look at ChoMin. She sat there, her knees pulled close to her chest, and the look in her eyes was just – sad.

            “Never mind,” she said hurriedly, a blush forming in her cheeks when she realized how extremely inappropriate that question was, given their history.

JunSu stared up back to sky, his eyes focused to the passing plane. “I liked you since the first time I saw you. I thought, ‘wow, who is this beautiful girl and why is she here?’.”

ChoMin chuckled, brushing her bangs out of her face self-consciously. She didn’t say anything, allowing JunSu to continue.

            “I think what I loved most about you was your energy. The way you get flustered easily and they way your eyes always grow big when you are happy. Or that you worry and take care of us - I don’t know, it’s just the little things I noticed.”

She smiled, so happy that JunSu was able to share something like this to her. ChoMin knew how much he had liked her, but her curiosity got the better of her. She really wanted to know what was so special about her that JunSu liked enough that could prove why JaeJoong was abnormal. I mean, if Xiah JunSu could fall in love her, why couldn’t YoungWoong JaeJoong?

            “So I’m not this hideous thing?” she asked with a hint of joking in her voice.

            “Weeell,” JunSu said, scrunching up his nose, “not when you clean up. I mean, imagine my surprise when the girl I thought was the most beautiful in all of Seoul comes out of her room looking like something a cat would drag in.”

ChoMin laughed, snorting in the most unladylike way. “Most beautiful in all of Seoul, huh?” she joked, elbowing JunSu in the ribs and winking.

            “Yah! That ship has sailed,” he said, sitting up.

            “In all seriousness,” ChoMin said with a huge smile on her face. “Thank you for liking me.”

JunSu smiled at her sincerely, pushing himself up off the ground. He picked up the soccer ball from the ground and dusted off the grass from his pants. He then offered his hand to ChoMin, and she grabbed it.

In that little moment, everything seemed to blow away with the wind. To JunSu, the last bit of closure he needed was given to him and he truly felt that he could move on. The chilled wind blew, rustling the leaves and playing with their hair.

            “I think fall is already here,” ChoMin commented, rubbing her shoulders.

            “C’mon,” JunSu said, sticking out his elbow for ChoMin to hold on to like a gentleman. In his right arm, his beloved soccer ball fit snuggly in between the crook. “ChangMinnie should be done with lunch by now – if not, let’s bother him until he cries.”

ChoMin grabbed hold of his elbow and with a smile, the two walked towards the massive building.

When ChoMin and JunSu had returned to their apartment and settled down for a late lunch; BongCha, JaeJoong, YunHo, and YooChun had returned from where ever they had been to sit down and partake on the delicious food ChangMin prepared. Since the table had only 6 chairs, ChoMin, in an act to appear nicer, offered her seat across from JaeJoong and opted to eat her lunch on the counter. As she sat and ate her food, she mentally kicked herself for her stupidity.

She was more than thankful when lunch was over; hopefully the Cassiopeia president would leave and go back to her own house. Judging from the amount of dishes that needed to be washed, ChoMin was glad that it was her day off. JaeJoong began to clear the plates when BongCha stopped him.

            “Here let me,” she said sweetly, batting her eyelashes.

ChoMin immediately stood from her chair and wondered to the table. ‘That !’ she thought, narrowing her eyes. ‘She thinks she can win points by acting all goody-two-shoes!’

BongCha flashed a challenging glance to ChoMin when she accidentally brushed against JaeJoong’s hand as she tried to get the plates.

            ‘Two can play at that game!’ ChoMin thought evilly, flashing her own charming smile.

            “Oh don’t be silly!” she said in English, knowing that that was something she could one-up BongCha on, “Let me.” She said the last bit in Korean as she reached for the plates in BongCha’s hand.

            “Aniyo,” BongCha said through a fake smile, pulling on the plates. “It’s ok, I usually help out Joongie whenever I come over.”

            “But you’re guest,” ChoMin stressed, pulling back on the plates, “It would be so rude if I let you do this.”

            “It’s fine!” BongCha said with a grunt, pulling even harder, “I insist.”

The other members watched with entertained face as the little tug-of-war ensued. YunHo suppressed a laugh, while YooChun and JunSu grinned with amusement. ChangMin shook his head and JaeJoong just stepped back and watched, unsure what to do.

            “Um girls,” JaeJoong interjected, lifting the stack of plates from their grasps. “I’ll clean up. You’re guest and it’s your day off,” he told them respectively.

The two girls sweetly smiled at each other before storming off in different directions – BongCha to the couch and ChoMin to YooChun’s recording room.

            “Aish,” JaeJoong mumbled, clearing up the dishes while the other members chuckled, “Girls are so annoying.”

            “Well,” YooChun said, stretching his arms, “But that’s what makes them girls. I’m going to work on some music.” And with that, he excused himself as he followed ChoMin, laughing all the way to the recording room.

As he pushed open the door, he was almost instantly assaulted by her ranting.

            “Uggh!!! Did you see that?!” she yelled in English, keeping her voice down so the others wouldn’t hear. “She was antagonizing me.”

            “Relax,” YooChun told her, rubbing her shoulders to try and calm her down. When her breath evened out a bit, he left her to go sit in front of the piano.

Blowing at her bangs, ChoMin sat down in one of the leather rolling chairs behind YooChun’s computer desk and moved the mouse of the computer. To her surprise, YooChun’s wallpaper was a picture of him and BoA laughing and hugging. She eyed him suspiciously from the corner of her eye, planning to interrogate him about it; but at the last minute, she decided to file that away for one of their late-night discussions. Right now, she wanted to let out steam.

             “I don’t get what’s her problem,” she ranted, her mind on BongCha despite her curiosity over the wallpaper. “I mean, why does she have to one-up me in my own home?”

            “She’s harmless,” YooChun retorted, pressing some piano keys in tune of a song. “The only reason why she’s getting to you is because you still have feelings for JaeJoong hyung.”

ChoMin groaned as she clicked the button to connect to the internet. “Is it that obvious?”

            “Not really, I mean… You show very subtle hints that you still do, but to me, they’re very obvious.”

            “So what do I do?” she asked, but she was facing the computer screen trying to find her favorite fanfiction portal.

            “For starters, get over your crush on Hyung,” he said matter-of-fact.

            “But how?” she asked, but then added softly, “and it’s not just a ‘crush’…”

            “Why don’t you do what that old saying says?” YooChun suggested with mild interest. He loved his best friend, he really did. But at the moment, he was getting really tired of her whining – especially when all he wanted to do was compose his new piece, “Ya’ know, some crap about ‘the way to get over an old love is to find a new one’.”

            “Hmmm…” ChoMin replied, her mind already on something else. She was skimming through the newest fanfics, trying to find the one that JeeWoon posted up.

YooChun didn’t even care to wait for an answer, he was too busy jotting down notes and trying new pieces. They spent a good half hour in silence, each doing their own thing and not bothering each other.

            “YooChun-ah, I’m gonna need to borrow your car,” JaeJoong demanded, waltzing into the room.

ChoMin didn’t even notice – she was too busy looking for JeeWoon’s fanfic ‘Oyster’ and updating her own fanfic. But YooChun did; with a nudge of his head, YooChun motioned to JaeJoong that it was on his desk. Getting the hint, JaeJoong reached for the keys and was about to move when he saw just what was on the screen. With a mischievous smile JaeJoong hovered over ChoMin, reading everything she wrote.

            “Who the heck is KyuGee and why the hell would I ‘sweep her off her feet and carried her bridal style’?” he read off her computer.

ChoMin jolted with surprised, totally unaware that JaeJoong was even behind her. She hurriedly minimized the page in embarrassment. JaeJoong chuckled at her flushed face, thinking about how cute she looked.

            “Shut up!” she exclaimed, trying to push him away from the computer. She wasn’t able to. Against his toned and rock hard muscles, her little wimpy push did nothing against JaeJoong’s strong body. “This is private!”

            “I can’t believe that you’re one of those people who make fanfics,” he retorted with a snort, “I thought you weren’t one of those crazy fans.”

            “For your information,” ChoMin began, narrowing her eyes dangerously at JaeJoong. “People who make fanfics aren’t crazy. It’s just a form of getting close to our idols.”

JaeJoong laughed as he began walking away, “Whatever you say. Just as long as you make me the good guy, I won’t mind that you’re writing about me.” And with that he left the room, leaving ChoMin to blush.

Chibi-form – Japanese word meaning "short person". In anime, the characters are drawn with large heads and eyes with an out of proportion body – its really cute! x)

Just a short filler chapter since I haven't updated in a while - well... I guess this chapter does show some character development as well as show how ChoMin and the rest interact with one another when there isn't some life-changing drama. Because truthfully, who's life is always as exciting as it is in k-dramas? ;)

Until Next Time!

~Asian_Innocence