(*points at the pic*) BLUE STEEL!! XD

Now, where was I? Oh, yes! Jae Hwa was about to tell the boys-slash-readers a little about herself!

(*overdramatic sigh*) Although I didn’t get any REVIEWS for my last chapter…

-----

“I grew up in a town in Jeju-do called Huhae-dong,” she began to tell them, closing her eyes. “I was born in Jeju-city, where my appa was as translator and tour guide and my umma was a gardener at Hallim Park. We lived there until I was six, but I hardly consider that “growing up”. My appa spoke Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, and English. Growing up, he taught me all of them,” she opened her eyes and smiled. “As soon as I could talk, he would carry me around the house, pointing at different objects and telling me what they were in different languages. As soon as I could walk, he would lead me around the city, pointing at things and telling me about them – and whenever he took me to see my umma at work, he wouldn’t know the plants,” she giggled and sighed. “My umma only spoke Korean and a little bit of each of the languages that my father knew, but she knew each and every one of the plants in more languages than my father spoke. My umma loved nature. She loved anything green…” She drifted off.

‘Just like you,’ Soohyun thought, but he didn’t say it out loud.

“A little after I turned five, my baby brother was born. Although my appa was paid well enough as a tour guide and translator, and my umma made a little extra money as a gardener, they believed that a big city like Jeju wasn’t a very good place to raise a child, much less two. They had been planning on moving since I was born. But my appa had been taking classes part time at the university to get a teaching degree,” she shifted in Soohyun’s lap so that she could more comfortably curl up against his chest. “When we moved to Huhae-dong, he became a language teacher at the local primary school. When I entered school, I was already more advanced in five different languages than most of my peers. I was good at botany, too, because of my umma always talking to me about plants. She became a private gardener when we moved to Huhae-dong. I loved it there, more than I ever loved the city,” she sat up and smiled at all of the boys, her eyes shining. “We had this huge backyard!

“My brother and I would always play in the backyard, and our umma had two of her own gardens that she tended when she wasn’t working on someone else’s property. She had one on one side of the backyard for her flowers, and the other side for a vegetable garden. And along the back fence, she had planted a bunch of trees and bushes. In the summertime, she would pay me and my brother to pick fruits and vegetables for her while she worked or tended to her flower garden. She told my appa to never buy any fruits, vegetables, or herbs from the store, because she always grew them. And she was the greatest cook!” Jae Hwa was on a roll now. She wasn’t looking at any of the boys, but was staring off into space with a wide grin on her face. She was in her own little world, talking about her childhood. “When I eight, one of my classmates brought her puppy to school, and for weeks I begged my parents for a dog.

“My umma always said no, because she was afraid that it would dig up her gardens. She always said that my desire for a dog was a phase and that I would outgrow it, but I always wanted one. I started researching all kinds of animals, and paid more attention in Biology than any of my other classes; I even began volunteering at an animal hospital when I was fourteen. One day, a client came in with a pregnant Jindo. I helped with the delivery, and I was so nice to her, the client offered me one of the puppies from the litter. I had to beg my parents,” tears started building in her eyes. “It was a girl, and I named her Sohee. I trained her to not dig in umma’s gardens, and I also taught her a few tricks. I went everywhere with Sohee. She would sleep beside me in my bed, follow me around the house in the morning while I prepared to leave for school, run from the front door of the house to greet me when I got home from school, lay at my feet when I was reading or studying, and whenever I was dancing, she would always jump up and prance around me,” Jae Hwa was counting all of the things that she did with her dog on her hands, which started shaking as tears started falling down her face. “When I first left home for Seoul, Sohee was following me around the way she usually did, and she my hand goodbye when I left, like she always did. When I arrived in Seoul, it was about the same time around home as it was when I got home from school,” Jae Hwa’s shoulders were shaking now and a few tears were falling down her face. “My umma called me and told me that Sohee was sitting by the door, just staring at it, waiting for me to come home. I’ve been gone for over three years, and my umma tells me that Sohee is still waiting at the door, every day, waiting for me to come home,” Jae Hwa broke down in sobs.

“Aw, PJ…” Soohyun murmured, pulling her close to him again. He wiped away her tears and rubbed her back while she sobbed into his chest.

“That’s so sad…” Kevin whispered, a few tears leaking out of his eyes.

“Why did you leave home for Seoul in the first place?” Eli asked, rubbing his watering eyes.

Jae Hwa just sighed. “I’m so tired…”

“PJ, why don’t you go take your shower and go to bed?” Soohyun suggested softly. “You can tell us more when you want to. I won’t pressure you anymore if it will make you this upset.”

“Gomawo, oppa,” she whispered. She slid off of his lap and kissed him on the cheek, and then disappeared around the corner towards the bathroom.

When they all heard the shower running, Soohyun slowly turned to the group and leaned on his knees, burying his hands in his hair. “I shouldn’t have pressured her.”

“You think?” Kiseop sniffed, blowing his nose and then passing the box of tissues to Kevin.

Suddenly, Soohyun shot up in his seat and grinned. “You guys, I have an idea!”

“What?” Xander grumbled, accepting the tissue box that Kevin had stretched in his direction. He hated crying, and he hated to see people he cared about crying.

“Have we ever done a concert in Jeju-do?” One-by-one, each of the boys’ faces lit up with realization.

“As a matter of fact, I don’t think we have…” Kibum muttered, taking a few tissues out of the box and passing it to Eli.

“I’ll call our manager,” Alexander grinned and lunged for the phone.

--

Two weeks later, the boys had already planned the entire thing – late-October, they would be flying to Jeju City for a show, and then they would be given a two-day “vacation” and then they would have a second show in Seogwipo on the opposite side of the province.

The big deal was keeping it a secret from Jae Hwa. Soohyun was dead-set on it being a surprise, which was difficult for all of them. Since they had grown close to Jae Hwa, she became their closest confidante; they told her everything, and couldn’t keep a secret from her. Naturally, planning a surprise as big as this was painfully difficult for them - especially when they had to keep it to themselves for a little less than a month.

Soohyun was the only member of the group with the resolve to make sure it was a surprise, so he was with Jae Hwa at all times, trying to make sure that none of his other friends spoiled it for him – I mean, Jae Hwa.

Yes. Jae Hwa. He didn’t want them to spoil the surprise for Jae Hwa. He was doing this for her. He wanted her to smile like she had when she was telling them about her childhood and family. That was all he wanted to hear from her when they were together. She always, always smiled when she was talking about her family and dog – he loved that smile. He was doing this so that she would be happy, not because he wanted to see that smile.

“PJ, you remember the day that I made you move in with us?” He asked, walking into the kitchen a little bit after dinner and leaning against the counter.

“Ye,” she responded, the dishes making clinking sounds as she washed them. It was silent for a moment, and he just watched her. She was humming the tune of ‘Bingeul Bingeul’ while she washed the dishes by hand, since the dishwasher was broken. She had stacked the dirty dishes to the right of the double sink, and was taking each dish from the top of the stack, rinsing it off with water, and then scrubbing it with soap and a sponge. Once she had finished the washing process, she would turn off the water, grab a towel, dry the plate, and put it on the opposite side of the sink. Overall, it looked like a troublesome job for one person.

“Can I help?” He asked watching her for a minute.

She froze and looked up at him, concerned. “Oppa, are you feeling alright?”

He grinned at her, “I feel like helping you!”

She couldn’t help but smile back, “Oppa, I’m your assistant. You aren’t supposed to assist me.”

He pouted, “But I want to help!”

Jae Hwa dried off her hands and put them on her hips. Soohyun continued to pout at her, and she finally broke down and giggled. “I’ll wash, you dry,” she handed him the towel.

Soohyun’s help cut the time it usually took Jae Hwa to do the dishes by hand in half. Soohyun slumped down into one of the chairs at the table and watched Jae Hwa put away the dishes. “PJ?”

“Ye?”

“Why do you complain about your umma calling?”

“Bwoh?” She stopped and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“The day that you moved in – I saw your apartment because you had to get your phone before your umma called. You said she always pestered you.”

She laughed and shook her head, “Ani! I love my umma. I just say that she’s pestering me because… well…” She drifted off and pursed her lips in deep thought. “It’s kind of hard for me to explain.”

“I can wait,” he grinned, leaning on the table.

Jae Hwa sighed and sat down beside him. “I really look forward to my umma’s calls. But it’s been a long time since I’ve come home – every time we talk she tells me about everything that I’m missing, and I become a little more homesick,” she sighed. She stared at the table with the saddest expression, and Soohyun didn’t like it.

He wanted her to smile again, and he knew just the thing. “PJ, tell me about your brother.”

Jae Hwa smiled and lifted her head, her eyes twinkling. “His name is Bae, and he’s the same age as Dongho-ah,” she told him.

‘That must be why she’s so attached to Dongho,’ Soohyun thought, smiling.

“Bae is the silliest boy!” She laughed, “When we were kids, we would always play in the backyard while our umma tended to her garden. We would wrestle, chase each other around the yard, and he would always watch me dance and tell me how pretty I looked when I was dancing,” she continued to smile. Whenever she told any of them about her life in Jeju-do, she would begin staring off into space with a glowing look in her eyes, completely lost in her memories. “And he’s so smart!” Jae Hwa suddenly declared, looking and Soohyun. “My umma tells me every time she calls that he’s making straight A’s in school, and is the third in his class! He also takes care of Sohee for me…” Jae Hwa drifted off, her smile faltering a little bit.

What Soohyun could gather from her stories and the way she acted while telling them, she missed her dog more than anything else. If he didn’t know any better, he would say that she missed her dog more than anyone else in her family.

He reached over and took one of her hands. “PJ…” He wanted to tell her. He wanted to tell her so bad. But he wanted to surprise her even more. He knew that if he told her, then her excitement would be unbearable for any of them.

“Ye, oppa?” She snapped out of her memories and met his eyes.

“…Has your umma called you today?” He quickly thought of a cover.

She frowned and shook her head. “Ani, but she usually calls right about now…”

“Why don’t you go take your shower? You’ve worked hard all day,” he smiled at her and patted her hand.

She frowned. “But what if she calls while I’m in the shower?”

“Where’s your phone? I can handle it.”

Jae Hwa’s eyes widened in shock. “Oppa, I can’t -”

He gently put one of his fingers over her lips and shushed her. “PJ, if I can’t meet your umma then I at least want to talk to her.” Jae Hwa frowned a little bit, but stood up and reached into her pocket. She pulled out the flip phone and handed it to him, and he stared at it in disbelief. The piece of plastic in his hands appeared as if it used to be dark green, but the colors had faded in a few spots, and it looked like it had been dropped frequently, and even had a few pieces of duct tape holding it together. “I’m getting you a new phone.”

“I’ve had that phone since I was seventeen!” Jae Hwa objected.

He looked up at her, his face contorted ridiculously. “Seriously?” He looked back down at the piece of plastic in his hand and shook his head, “You’re due for a new one.” Jae Hwa huffed and turned around to head for the bathroom. Soohyun looked around the kitchen and smiled when he found the pad of paper and pen used for making grocery lists. He took it over to the table and set it down in front of him, right beside the decrepit phone.

He then proceeded to stare at the phone.

‘Please call, please call, please call…’ He chanted in his mind. Jae Hwa had been in the shower for approximately seven minutes when the phone started vibrating on the table. He picked it up and looked at the small, cracked screen on the front.

Umma.

His heart sped up and he swallowed nervously, then flipped it open and hit the green button. “Yoboseyo?”

The other end of the line was silent for a moment. “Who is this? Why are you answering my daughter’s phone?”

He shot up straight and grinned. “Park-shi, my name is Shin Soohyun – Jae Hwa and I are very close friends!”

“Really?” The woman’s voice immediately became suspicious. “How close?”

“Well…” He thought of how he should explain it without sounding incredibly rude. “She and I have been working together for almost two years. We know each other very well. She speaks very highly of you, as well as the rest of her family.”

“Oh, really?” She sounded genuinely amused.

“You should see how she smiles whenever she talks about home,” he told her, “She really misses everyone.”

“…And everyone really misses her,” Jae Hwa’s mother sighed.

“My friends and I want to do something about that,” he blurted out.

“Bwoh?”

“You see, Jae Hwa has worked with me and some friends of mine for almost two years now, and part of our job involves traveling a lot. When Jae Hwa first started telling us about her life in Jeju-do, we all agreed that she deserves to visit home – we actually talked to our manager and have scheduled two appearances in Jeju-do. One in Jeju City and the other two days later in Seogwipo. The two days we had set aside so that Jae Hwa could visit for a little while,” he explained. She had stopped speaking, but he knew that she must have still been there because he could hear barking in the background – Sohee. “…Yoboseyo?”

“You’re willing to do that… for Jae Hwa?” Her mother spoke softly.

“Jae Hwa has worked tirelessly every single day since she arrived in Seoul, never complaining, and never giving less than one-hundred percent. She deserves this.”

“Soohyun-shi… Gamsahamnida…” The older woman sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

“There are just two things I need to ask of you.”

“Ye, anything!”

“I want it to be a surprise, so I need your address.”

“Of course! What’s the second thing?”

“Well, it’s about Sohee…”

--

Soohyun felt like a ninja, mentally. He had managed to keep his plan a secret from Jae Hwa, and make sure that the guys kept it a secret, too. However, it was a very difficult secret to keep when they were at the airport, with flight times and destinations being announced over loud speakers. It was a semi-detailed plan that Soohyun was very proud of.

All of the guys would do everything they could to keep Jae Hwa from figuring out their destination. Jae Hwa never really cared where they were going since there was a strong possibility she could speak the language. She would figure out where they were soon enough. However, they wouldn’t be able to hide it on the plane, when the pilot announced their destination.

And it had worked. The guys had managed to keep her preoccupied or distracted from the announcements until they had to get on the plane. She looked suspicious when Soohyun insisted that she have the window seat, and he would sit beside her – Soohyun always wanted the window seat. It was so that he could lean on something when he inevitably fell asleep, and it wouldn’t be a person.

So when he sat down beside her and started jiggling his leg nervously, Jae Hwa looked even more suspicious. “Oppa, are you nervous?”

“Bwoh?” He looked at her and smiled. “I’m fine, PJ.”

“You’re not acting like it…” She muttered, and then turned her gaze out the window. After a twenty-minute wait, the captains’ voice was heard. Jae Hwa tuned out the captains speech, since she had heard the same thing hundreds of times since she had started working for U-Kiss. However, one sentence caught her ear and made her tense up.

“-Destination of Jeju City on the lovely island of Jeju-do -”

It was like a part of her brain fizzed out for a second.

“Can you believe that?” Soohyun began to say with heavy sarcasm, leaning on the armrest between them. “It looks like we’re going to the province where you came from…” He drifted off and then smiled at her, winking.

“Did you…?” She breathed, moving her hands up to cover as tears started to prick at the corners of her eyes.

“It was all Soohyun’s idea,” Eli declared, poking his head over the back of Soohyun’s seat and poking the back of the older U-Kiss member’s head.

“We all wanted to tell you, but he insisted that it be a surprise!” Kiseop declared, poking his head over Jae Hwa’s seat.

Jaw Hwa couldn’t hear anything after that; she just kept staring at Soohyun’s smile. He was leaning on the armrest between them, his smile wide and eyes shining. “It was your idea…?” She whispered, leaning towards him and tilting her head to the side, some of her hair falling in the way of her face.

Soohyun’s smile became a little smaller, but remained as genuine. “You deserve this, and I wanted you to be happy,” he told her, pushing the hair out of her face and over her shoulder, and then rubbed away a few of the tears that had escaped her eyes with his thumb.

Without thinking, Jae Hwa wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close, gently pressing her lips against his. “Gamsahamnida…” She whispered when she broke away from him.

She was about to pull away when Soohyun grinned and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her as close as he could with the armrest between them. “Chonmaneyo,” he whispered, and then pressed his lips against hers.

“…Does this mean you two are dating now?” Dongho asked, surprising them.

They jumped apart and smiled sheepishly at each other.

“Uhm…” Jae Hwa smiled and started to play with her hair to cover up the redness that she could feel rising on her neck and ears.

“I’d like that,” Soohyun declared, leaning on the armrest again. He seemed completely unfazed by his friends’ presence at such an intimate moment.

Jae Hwa stopped playing with her hair and looked at him with surprise, but then smiled. “I’d like that, too,” she murmured, leaning towards him.

“We’re all going to turn around now…” Kibum muttered from his seat next to the window on the opposite side of the isle.

“Aw, yeobo! It’s cute!” Kevin declared, poking Kibum in the side. He then reached across the aisle and poked Soohyun in the side. “I just want to say that it’s about damn time,” he winked and then leaned back in his seat.

Soohyun moved the armrest up and wrapped one arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side. Jae Hwa smiled and shifted closer to him, then took his free hand with one of hers and laced her fingers through his.

--

Roughly an hour into the flight, Jae Hwa was falling asleep on Soohyun’s shoulder, and he was falling asleep with his head leaning on top of hers.

“Yah, PJ?” He whispered.

“Ye?” She murmured.

“Do you know how long I’ve liked you?”

“Nuh-uh,” she responded, separating their hands so that she could place hers on his chest.

He smiled and wrapped his now-free arm and her. “You know how the guys and I used to treat you like crap in the first few months of you working for us?”

“Four months,” she muttered. “Give or take a few days.”

He chuckled and kissed her on top of her head. “Well, remember that day in the first April that you were working for us when we were about to go on for an interview, and you went to get food for us?”

“All of you wanted Kimbap and Starbucks,” she mumbled.

“And Kevin had a girl moment…”

“And threw a temper-tantrum when I gave him his coffee without cream and sugar,” she said softly with a bitter voice. “He threw the coffee at me, and I ducked just in time.”

“You remember what you said and did afterwards?”

“Ye, but I think it would be more fun to hear what you remember,” she sighed.

“Up until that point, you would always smile, apologize, and say that you’ll go and get him another one, and that you would do it right that time. But that time, you glared at him and walked right up to him and started poking him in the chest and said, ‘Woo Sung Hyun, you have no right to treat me this way! Just because you’re famous, that doesn’t mean you should treat people like crap! You act all kind and funny in front of the cameras and to fans, but as soon as you walk off-camera, you start behaving like a child! How would your fans react? How would your umma react?’. I think he went three shades paler as soon as you mentioned his umma,” he chuckled and shook his head a little bit.

“Stop moving so much,” she muttered, moving her arms to wrap them around his middle. “I hardly see what this has to do with your liking me for a time span that is unknown to me.”

“We all stared at you like you were an alien species, and you didn’t back down. You just crossed your arms and glared at him. You said, ‘go ahead and fire me if you want’ -”

“But Dongho jumped up and yelled, ‘ani! Noona’s been tutoring me! If you fire her, then I’ll fail Biology!’ You all turned and stared at him just as you’d been staring at me. I even heard Kibum say ‘Noona?’ in disbelief,” she chuckled. “And then Eli said ‘tutoring?’, and Kiseop said ‘Biology?’ and then you all turned and started staring at me again.”

“But you were still glaring at Kevin, who was still gaping at you like a fish out of water,” Soohyun snickered. “And then he apologized, and said ‘for what?’ and he stared at you until you pointed at the mess against the wall behind you and he said ‘I’m sorry for throwing my coffee at you…?’. We all thought you had split personalities because we blinked and you had stopped glaring at Kevin and were smiling. You went ‘it’s fine, Kevin-shi. Would you like me to go and get you a new coffee?’ and we all stared at you in disbelief.”

“And he gaped at me for a few seconds before he went ‘ye?’ with a confused expression. I immediately glared at him and said ‘ye, what?’. He looked panicked and then said ‘ye, shipshiyo?’ -”

“And you smiled and bowed, and then disappeared from the room like a ninja,” he chuckled. They were both silent for a minute or two, and Soohyun’s smile became smaller and more reminiscent. “That was the first time I really noticed you. We all started being nicer to you because we were afraid of you.”

“Except Dongho,” she muttered. “Dongho has always been nice to me.”

“Well, after a little while we all started to grow closer to you. You became more than a personal assistant and started being a friend, too,” he smiled and started playing with the ends of her hair. “You really took care of us. Remember that time two months after the “Kevin Incident” when we all got sick?” She only sighed and nodded. “You made us soup and tea, and gave us medicine… Kiseop tried to spit out the tea that you made for us because he said it smelled and tasted gross, but you kept telling him that it would help us get better a lot faster. When he still wouldn’t drink it, you pinched his nose closed and made him drink it,” he chuckled and shook his head. “And our manager helped you.”

Jae Hwa snickered, “Yeah, I had fun with that.” Her smile fell and she looked up at him. “Oppa, you still haven’t told me how long you’ve liked me.”

“I also liked that time you were in the gym with us, fetching us towels and water whenever we asked – and Eli and Kiseop were practicing Tae Kwon Do. Kiseop kept beating Eli, who was getting frustrated. When you handed Eli his water bottle, you whispered something in his ear and his face lit up like he’d just had an epiphany of some sort. He won their next practice match, and Kiseop was so mad,” he chuckled. “He demanded that you tell him what you told Eli -”

“He used his right left for all of his kicks and balanced on his left leg. If Eli took out his left leg, then Kiseop’s entire attack pattern would be thrown off,” she moved one of her arms to poke his stomach. “Oppa…” She whined.

“I don’t know how long I’ve liked you,” Soohyun finally told her. “But I know that I’ve liked you for a long time.”

Jae Hwa smiled, “I can pinpoint the exact moment that I started liking you.”

“Really?” He muttered with disbelief.

“Mmhmm,” she nodded against his shoulder. “I was making dinner and you walked in and whined, ‘PJ, when’s dinner going to be ready?’. I froze and looked at you in disbelief and said ‘what did you just call me?’ and you smiled and said ‘PJ - Y’know, Park Jae Hwa?’. You just kept smiling at me with that twinkle in your eye and I could feel my neck heating up…” She sighed and wrapped her arms around him once more.

Her breathing evened out a few minutes later, a sign that she was asleep. Soohyun rested his head on top of hers and closed his eyes, falling asleep with a smile on his face.

-----

Now, I wonder if I’ll get any reviews for all of my typing. Ne…?