Rumpling her fringe back off her face Bethany watched in bemused humour as the old man who had just shouted at her stumped grumpily off to her car.  It wasn’t her fault Bunnings didn’t do home deliveries at ten forty five at night and while he had been abusing her, Bunnings and the world in general about it she had almost laughed in his face.  An older woman in Bunnings uniform walked past her checkout and stopped a trolley full of boxes beside it.  “Good customer eh?”

Bethany turned around, her grin widening.  “Yeah brilliant.”  She stepped out of her checkout bay and shook a finger in her team mate’s face.  “‘Some kind of beepin’ useless store this is!  I can remember when beebin’ shops were supposed to cater to the beepin’ customers but apparently not anymore!’ ” She broke off as Marie chuckled.  “He went on for ages.  And that was after he’d asked me in about every imaginable way if I was sure we couldn’t do a home delivery tonight.”  She tipped her head, tilting the grin off her face slightly.  “Actually I felt kind of sorry for him.  He looked unhappy.”

Marie shook her head.  “You would.  Hey in between your rush of lovely customers, could you sort all those boxes and put them away?  Thanks.  See you Monday arvo I guess.”

“Yep, seeya. Have a good weekend.”

“You too! Hey have fun at church on Sunday!”  The last sentence was flung over the older woman’s shoulder as she left the warehouse and Laura didn’t bother shouting an answer as she turned to the trolley of boxes.  Marie was the woman who had first showed her around Bunnings when Bethany started work and they had been on a friendly basis ever since.  Marie chatted while they worked together and Bethany tried to make her laugh when Marie was having a bad day.  Friday night was late closing night for Bunnings although Marie’s comment about the rush of customers was pure fun.  Anyone still in the store fifteen minutes before closing time was either far too keen or desperate.. 

Still smiling, Bethany began throwing boxes into the large bins near the entrance, where people who bought pot plants could take them if they wanted.  She was interrupted when three men wandered out of an aisle and over to her checkout.  Stepping up to the cash register she put on her usual friendly smile, saw their faces and felt like she’d been hit with a defibrillator.  T.O.P, Daesung and G-Dragon were wearing nothing to disguise who they were other than a pair of sunglasses on Seunghyun’s face and a snapback pulled on backwards over JiYong’s hair.  Seunghyun put a handful of decorative drawer handles on the counter then began examining the drill display next to the checkout.

“Dude come on….” Whined JiYong and Laura bit her lip to keep from grinning as she scanned the handles – rather slower than she usually would.

Seunghyun turned back to face her and Bethany quickly tried to blank her face as she looked up at him.  “You guys tourists?”  She asked, slipping the last handle into a bag.

“Yes.”  Replied Seunghyun simply and Bethany wondered if his English really was as basic as she had always believed it to be or if he simply didn’t want to talk. 

As slowly as she could, Bethany put the last handle in the bag and scrabbled desperately in her mind for something casual to say that would keep them there a bit longer.  “How long are you in Australia?”

“Ten days.  We came to here… ummm last day? Yester-day?”  It was Daesung who answered and Bethany’s face melted into another smile at the pure excitement on his face as he said the words.

“Ten days isn’t very long to come all the way from Korea…”  Bethany mused then jumped when JiYong whipped around to stare at her. 

“How do you knowing we from Korea?”  He asked in that emotionless English that somehow made him sound arrogant and fragile at the same time.

“Well, aren’t you Korean?” 

JiYong nodded slowly and Bethany mentally instructed her heart to stop beating so hard.  Turning to Daesung he began talking in Korean.  Quickly Bethany put her hand on the receipt printer, concentrating on that and trying not to look as if she was listening to the only other language she had ever learned. 

“Daesung-ah, she knows who we are.”

“Hyung…”  Daesung’s warm voice sounded patiently soothing.  “You make it sound like we’re wanted or something.”

“Daesung, we came here to get away from crazed idiotic fangirls not meet another one!”

“Is she acting like she knows who we are?  And even if she does know us… she looks nice and she’s certainly not going crazy.  It’s ok Hyung.”

JiYong matched stares with his dongsaeng for a moment or two before spinning and striding off outside.  Unreasonably glad pride at Daesung’s words flaming in her cheeks, Bethany took the docket from the machine and saw T.O.P had wandered away from the check out. Picking up her backpack from under the counter she rounded her checkout and stepped over to Daesung.  “Umm…”  Daesung turned, his face so polite that Bethany almost forgot to talk.  “uhh, we need to close the store now… James is waiting to shut the doors; do you think, Seunghyun could come back tomorrow?”

Glancing at his hyung Daesung nodded briefly then looked back at Bethany, his expression now calmly intrigued.  “So, you do knowing BigBang?” 

Bethany clapped one hand over , her breath catching in a half gasp of self-incrimination.  Daesung watched her, his eyes crinkling in amusement.  “Iss ok.  I not eat you for knowing dis.”

Half laughing, Daesung turned to grab Seunghyun before he had once more roamed off into the store and Laura half heard him telling Seunghyun in Korean they had to leave.  Once outside Daesung turned around, looking for her and Bethany grabbed the opportunity, dropping her voice so Seunghyun wouldn’t hear her.  “Daesung please, I’m not a creepy fangirl and I’m not going to stalk you or alert all the press or anything. Of course I’m thrilled to see you all and I nearly died when I saw you walk up to my checkout but you’re on holidays and the last thing I want to do is wreck that so I’m sorry.”

As she spoke Daesung expressions had changed to match his concentration on her English.  Finally there was a pause then he said simply, “Sorry for what?  You not do any dhing wrong.  You only nice to us soooo, nodhing wrong.”  Bethany eyed him, not sure if Daesung’s apparent unconcern was shared by JiYong.  It certainly hadn’t sounded it.  Just then she ran into Seunghyun’s back and almost squealed.  They both exclaimed at the same time; Bethany’s another sharp intake of air and Seunghyun’s a deep sound of reactive apology as she came in contact with him. stumbling back a step, Bethany found herself instantly held upright by both men and for a heady moment was aware of both Seunghyun’s and Daesung’s hands wrapped firmly across her arms, keeping her from falling.  Then Seunghyun slowly let go, looking down at the ground with his embarrassed smile that set dimples so deeply into his face.  “You ok?”  He asked shyly and Bethany let her breath out as Daesung too let his fingers unclench from her arms and fold across his chest.

“Yeah. Thanks.  Oh and here’s your docket. I forgot to give it to you.”  Seunghyun took it and laughed. 

“Dhank you.”  he said slowly and Bethany could hear the humour in his voice.  “Life might not.. go on? widhout dhat.”  His sentence ended with a grimace at his attempt into English sarcasm but JiYong interrupted him before Bethany could reply.

“Where are we going now?” asked the leader in Korean and Bethany again became uncomfortably aware that she could understand every word they said.

“Molla… back to the motel?”  suggested Daesung and JiYong made an impatient gesture.

“I want to go somewhere… I don’t know where.  Somewhere wild...”  He pushed his hands back into his hair and sighed looking at Daesung with a mixture of pleading and apology.  Bethany waited awkwardly, thinking she should leave now that Daesung and Seunghyun had stopped talking to her but not wanting too at all.

“Maybe the beach?” Daesung was thinking out loud and Laura could feel JiYong’s gratefulness at his dongsaengs toleration of his whims.  “But I don’t know how to get to any beach around here.  I don’t know of anywhere else, there’s no theme park either.” 

He turned to Bethany just as she was sliding out of the circle of light around Daesung’s parked car car.  “Do you have to going some where?”  He asked, eyeing the several foot gap she had put between herself and three men.

“Oh no! I just… figured you wouldn’t want me hanging around anymore… so…”  She let her sentence dangling, shouting in her head for Daesung not to let her go.  Outward self-control she may have but Bethany loved BigBang just as much as any other V.I.P and the thought of leaving them now felt impossible.

“Please… wait… uhh…”  Daesung switched to Korean.  “Hyung we could ask her, she lives here she would know if there’s a beach we could go to.”  JiYong sighed for the second time, this time a far heavier sigh of stress and reluctance.  Once more his hand lifted to rake through his hair.

“Hyung, you wanted to go and she can tell us.”

“Ara. Ara.  It’s just… Daesung, I can’t handle fans at the moment ok?  I just… want to… I don’t know.  Just for ten days, G-Dragon doesn’t exist. I’m sick and tired of being watched and seen and judged and followed and ogled and having people squeal over me and fangirl over me; I’m sick of it all! I just wanted to be nobody for a while.  That’s why I came here.”

Bethany had taken another step back pushing her longing to be with BigBang away with it.  More than anything right now, she wanted JiYong to have his holiday and if she would be disturbing it she was more than happy to never see any of them again in her life.  Never mind the fact that she was already blinking back stinging tears at the thought of having to say goodbye to Daesung.  But Daesung didn’t back down.  “JiYong-ah. She’s not like that.  She’s really not.  Look, I can tell her anything you want, she won’t even look at you, but she is really not that kind of stupid fan! She even apologised –just for us coming through her checkout back there! And she told me she didn’t want our holiday ruined…”  Daesung had to stop for breath and JiYong’s mouth twisted into an unwilling smile.

“Why are you defending her so much? What’s so special about her? She’s just another fangirl.”  Bethany dropped her head quickly so JiYong wouldn’t see the expression wry amusement mixed with the knowledge that Jiyong was saying she was something out of the ordinary for Daesung.  It was Seunghyun who answered his leader.

“She isn’t just another fangirl Ji.  She is different.  I know it sounds cliché, don’t roll your eyes at me.  Ji, listen; I know about fangirls too…” Their eyes met while Seunghyun paused to let his words penetrate.  “Go and talk to her! Go on, she won’t freak out!  She’s sensible.”  JiYong sighed then brushed past his brothers, impatient.  He did want to go to the beach but the prospect of having a fangirl with them was making his head ache already.

Feeling as though she was about to either explode or implode at what had just been said about her, Bethany managed to blank her expression and meet Jiyong’s gaze with nothing but normal curiosity.

“Uh, are dhere… some beaches close to here?” 

Resisting the urge to correct his English and meeting the challenge in his eyes, Bethany replied with the same flat, animosity-tinged voice he had used.  “Yes, there are three within a couple hours’ drive.  The closest one will take you about half an hour to get too from here.” 

“Which one is best?”  Asked Daesung and both JiYong and Bethany felt instant relief at his input.

“Well…”  Bethany’s voice had relaxed and JiYong noticed it.  “My favourite is about an hour’s drive away – depending on how fast you go – but I’ve never been there at night.  I’ve always wanted to but I’ve never had anyone to go with and beaches at night are kind of scary.  Uh, the closest one is nice too though.  All beaches are nice really. Well all the ones around here aren’t. I don’t like some of the ones in Western Australia and New Zealand beaches are weird.”

“New Zealand?”  Repeated Seunghyun and Bethany grinned his accent.  “Has you been to there?”

“Yeah, twice.  Once, three years ago and then again a couple of months ago in January.”

“Can you direction us?” Asked JiYong and Bethany really did almost choke this time.  Telling herself firmly she must be too tired or his English wouldn’t be that funny she answered while trying to even out her voice.  “yeees. I can try.  I’m not very good with directions but sure I’ll have a go.  Hang on while I get a piece of paper.”  Without waiting for an answer she turned and walked across the carpark to where her car was parked.  When she returned a few minutes with pencil and pen all three members of BigBang were in a heated discussion.  Seunghyun and Daesung wanted Bethany to come with them, JiYong was simply silent with his arms crossed and looking at the beaten down figure, alone against his two brothers, Bethany felt sorry for him.  Leaning across the bonnet of Daesung’s hired car she began writing instructions, acutely aware that her writing was almost illegible at the best of times. 

“Do you has to be at home soon?”  Asked Daesung in English and she looked up, not knowing how to answer without sounding desperate to go with them.

“Not really.  I’ve finished work and I don’t have to work tomorrow morning so I can get home whenever.”

“Until whenever…” Repeated Seunghyun behind them and JiYong switched his head around to glare up at his hyung. 

“Not helping hyung.”  He stated tiredly and Bethany could tell he was trying to keep amusement out of his voice.

“Sooo..” interrupted Daesung, still talking to Bethany.  “If you not busy, hmmm, can you bring us beach?” 

“I don’t think JiYong wants me to come with you guys. So I’m happy to write out instructions for you to get there.”

“Do you want to coming widh us?”  Asked Daesung and Bethany felt suddenly extremely frustrated with the singer in front of her.

“Yes of course I’d love to come with you! Have some sense Daesung honestly! What do you think? Do you think I want to get rid of you??  What other V.I.P wouldn’t want to go to the beach with BigBang if they got the chance?!” She sighed and realised her voice had risen much louder than she had intended.  “That’s not the point.  The point is you guys want to go there.  So do you want instructions or are you going to drive off and get lost?”

For the first time JiYong let a grin of grudging appreciation slip over his face as he nudged Daesung’s shoulder.  “No we are not to needing instructings now.  Do you like to driving us there?”

GREETINGS! :D  so, hello, this is my Australian themed BigBang story that started out as a one shot and got too long.  let me know what you think, ALSO for all you American/other countries who don't speak Australian, I shall try to explain the slang and if you don't understand something please ask. just in case.  Fringe is another word for bangs by the way, just in case you didn't know.  anyway, enjoy and feel free to let me know what I'm doing/writing wrong :)