Chapter 4: First Attempt

                Bongcha puffed out her cheeks before letting out a gust of air. She played with a loose string on the sleeve of Seungri’s sweatshirt that she had borrowed a year ago and hadn’t given it back. She scanned the crowd again, looking for the girl Seungri had set her up with to be friends. She wasn’t late, but Bongcha was getting antsy.

                Finally, Haejung arrived with hair perfectly curled and wearing one of the latest fashion trends. Jiyong would’ve approved. She smiled at Haejung before stopping in front of her. “Thanks for agreeing to spend the day with me,” she said while offering a small bow of the head.

                “Don’t thank me for that,” Bongcha said with a wave of her hand, “Just let me know what you want to do.”

                “Well, what do you want to do?”

                “I’m not used to hanging out with girl,” Bongcha admitted sheepishly, “So I thought that you should decide… Unless you want to play soccer or something?”

                “I don’t think I’m dressed for that,” she said. Bongcha let out a nervous chuckle and nodded. She didn’t know why she had even suggested that to someone wearing high heels and a dress. Even Jiyong rarely played sports with her.

                “How about we get our nails done? Oh! And then we can go shopping! How does that sound, Unnie?” she asked, her whole face lighting up. The older girl nodded, trying to hide how much she really didn’t want to do either of those things. Haejung didn’t seem to notice and dragged Bongcha down the street towards an upscale nail salon.

                The smell of acetone and nail polish attacked Bongcha as she entered the store. She resisted the urge to run away and followed Haejung farther inside. Haejung told the lady what she wanted for the two of them before they were led towards the foot baths.

                Haejung daintily slipped off her heels before setting her feet into the warm bath. Bongcha pulled off her socks, balled them up, and then slid them into her shoes before gingerly sitting down and copying her companion. While her feet soaked, a lady began rubbing oils into her hands. It felt nice, but it wasn’t something that Bongcha really saw a point in doing.

                While they began painting her fingernails a light shade of pink, another lady began working on her feet. Bongcha tried not to laugh and twitch too much as the lady working her feet seemed to find every ticklish spot she had.

                Finally, when it was all done, her fingernails were pink with white flower designs on her thumbs and miniature petals painted on the rest of her nails. Her toes were painted a slightly darker shade of pink without a design to accompany it. Haejung had a matching design but in purple instead of pink.

                “What do you think?” Haejung asked, smiling happily as they were finally allowed to put their shoes back on.

                “It was nice. Maybe we could do this again sometime?” Bongcha asked, more to please Seungri and his long lost friend than because it was something she enjoyed. It wouldn’t kill her to be girly every once in a while after all.

                “I’d like that,” Haejung agreed, “but now we need to go shopping.” Bongcha restrained herself from rolling her eyes as she was dragged from this store and taken into a mall. She wandered from one store to another while Haejung picked things out, tried them on, or made Bongcha try things on. She figured that this must be how most men feel when they go shopping with their girlfriends.

                After a few hours, Haejung seemed to be satisfied with the amount of clothing and shoes she had purchased. “It’s been so long since I’ve shopped in Korea,” she said with a little bit of nostalgia.

                “Is it better than shopping in America?” Bongcha asked as she carried the bags and boxes.

                “It’s just different. It isn’t better or worse I guess.” Bongcha nodded and followed the younger girl back to where she had parked her car. She loaded up the trunk with all but three of the bags; those were hers.

                “Thanks so much for spending the day with me!” Haejung said before wrapping Bongcha in a tight and slightly awkward hug.

                “Thank you too,” Bongcha said, giving her shoulder a pat before they pulled apart.

                “Do you need a ride, Unnie?”

                “No, my car is around the corner,” Bongcha lied. She was actually going to take the bus home. She hated driving, but she hated calling a chauffeur even more, so she took the bus. Haejung accepted the excuse and got in her car while Bongcha wandered towards the bus stop and the promise of a Skype date with her true best friend.

                “She got you to paint your nails?” Jiyong asked, still recovering from his fight of laughter when he had first heard the news. Bongcha glared at him, wishing that she could somehow slap him through the computer screen.

                “Yeah, look at them,” she said, holding them up for the camera to pick up. This only made Jiyong laugh harder.

                “Why won’t you let me take you to get your nails done, huh?” he teased.

                “Because Seungri isn’t forcing me to be friends with you.”

                “He’s making you be friends with her?” he asked with an eyebrow raised.

                “That seems kind of harsh… It’s more like he wants us to be friends and he’s trying to get me to want it too. I think he thinks I need more girl friends,” she said, laying back on the bed and moving the laptop on to her lap.

                “Friendships can’t be forced,” he said, doing the same thing miles away in France, “Besides, you don’t seem to be the type to make friends with girly girls.”

                “Yeah, but I feel like I should try,” she said with a sigh. He nodded and shifted the pillows of his bed slightly to make it more comfortable.

                “I miss you,” Bongcha said again; she said it every time they talked, but it was true.

                “I miss you too, baby girl,” he said, glancing away from the computer, “but I’ll be back soon.”

                “I know but if I’m going to do girly stuff, I want to do it with you,” she said with a shrug. Jiyong was about to reply when the sound of Seungri’s ringtone on her phone filtered through the speakers on his computer.

                Bongcha moved the laptop and quickly got up to answer it. “How was hanging out with Haejung?” he asked after their usual hellos.

                “It was fine,” she said, “but I’m talking to Jiyong right now, so I can’t really speak for too long.”

                “Oh,” there was a twinge of jealousy in his voice.

                “I’ll call you after,” she reassured him, “Then we can talk more.”

                “Alright, talk to you then,” he said before hanging up the phone. Bongcha rolled her eyes before returning to her computer.

                “Is someone a little pissy today?” Jiyong asked, making Bongcha giggle.

                “No, he usually just hangs up like that if we’re going to talk later,” she said, “I think he forgot that it’s our time.”

                “He seems to forget that often,” Jiyong said, shifting to pull off his sweater, leaving him in just a white tank. While it wasn’t unpleasing to look at, Bongcha couldn’t help but think about how Seungri wore one better. She shook her head to clear her thoughts about her fiancé’s muscles before returning her attention to her best friend.

                “He gets jealous easy.”

                “So do you.”

                “So do you,” Bongcha mocked in the same tone Jiyong had used before sticking her tongue out at him jokingly. He laughed and repeated the gesture back at her.

                “I can’t wait to see your designs.”

                “Just wait, sweetie,” he said, “you’re going to be the one who gets to wear them first.”

                “Good,” she smiled and the two talked for a little longer before Seungri began texting her. It was around the same time that Jiyong began to yawn more and more, so Bongcha decided it was time for their conversation to end. They made a new date to talk before closing out of Skype. She called Seungri right after and he picked up on the second ring.

                “So you two got along?” was his first question.

                “I guess, but I wish we could do more…”

                “More boy-like things?” Seungri asked.

                “Yeah, I guess.”

                “You can do those with Daesung though,” Seungri said, “I mean, getting your nails done wasn’t that bad, right?”

                “How did you know what we did?”

                “Haejung called me after to tell me all about it,” he explained.

                “Ah, well, it was fine. I’m just afraid that it’s not worth it because I’ll mess them up soon,” she explained while clearing off her bed. She flopped down on it after and closed her eyes as she listened to his voice.

                “I’ll talk to her about doing other things if you want,” he said, “but it’s worth paying the money if you like it. You have to pamper yourself every once in a while right?”

                “That’s what massages are for,” she countered, making him chuckle.

                “I’ll give you a massage,” he said, his voice lowering slightly.

                “PG-13,” she warned, like she always did.

                “PG-13,” he agreed, “but can we be PG-13 tomorrow? I have to go to a meeting with my father, but we can hang out after that. You can sleep over if you want.”

                “Sounds good,” she agreed, “I’m hanging out with Daesung for part of the day, so I’ll come over around five?” He hummed a yes.

                “I’ll see you then,” Bongcha said, “I love you.”

                “I love you too,” he said, “Good night, don’t let the NC-17 dreams bite.”

                “What makes you think I have dreams like that?” she laughed.

                “You’re dating me, why wouldn’t you have dreams like that?” he countered in a teasing voice. They laughed and said their good nights one more time before hanging up.

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*bows* I am soooooo sorry for not updating this sooner, but i've been drowning in school worl. The pre-nursing program at my college is HELL so the next update will probably be when finals are over... again, i'm so sorry *bows*