Chapter 13

Min looked at the two pairs of leggings in her hands and contemplated which pair to wear under her regular pants that morning. She, finally, decided to wear the light blue ones that she held with her left hand. Min got dressed in a warm sweatshirt and sweatpants with the light blue leggings underneath. She put on her sneakers and went outside her grandma's house. It was really early in the morning but she waited for miss A' s choreographer Kim Hwayoung to stop by with her precious Mikkang who she promised to walk that morning. All the miss A girls loved Hwayoung Unni's dog Mikkang and considered themselves to be aunties to the young canine animal. They offer to take care of her when their Unni is busy. They feed her, dress her and love to take selcas with the dog.

This November morning, miss A's choreographer Unni had an early doctor's appointment so Min offered to give Mikkang a walk while her Unni was busy. Min didn't mind because she loved Mikkang, along with most dogs. She seemed to have some sort of obsession with them and would have to play or pet her friends' dogs when they visit her. The minute Hwayoung arrived with Mikkang, Min greeted the furry creature with open arms. Min told Hwayoung that she would walk her around for an hour or until she gets back from her doctor's visit. Hwayoung replied that it was fine and she will call when she's done. Min grabbed hold of Mikkang's leash and waved good-bye to her Unni.

“ Okay Mikkang! Let's have fun on our walk today! Do you want to have fun,” Min asked and she moved the little dog's head and up and down in a form of a nod.

“ You nodded! So you do want to have fun. Great! Come on, let's go,” Min turned left from her grandma's house and made her way down the sidewalk with Mikkang briskly walking ahead of her on his brown and red striped leash. She walked with her for four blocks before checking her smartphone in her pocket. It's only been fifteen minutes, she thought. Then , she looked through the activity on her phone.

She received no new messages that morning. Usually, Min would receive a text from Kikwang in the morning greeting her a “good or happy morning”. And sometimes, she'd wake up to the weather forecast presented to her by Kikwang via text. His texts would say things like “The skies are clear and there's a bright sun shining!”, “It's chilly and windy so wear a sweater!”, or “ Min, it's raining a lot. Bring an umbrella!”. Reading his texts would make her laugh and joke to herself about if Kikwang was studying to be a weather man.

But there was no message telling her to wear a sweater or bring an umbrella that morning or messages of the sort for the three days before that Tuesday. With the thought of not receiving Kikwang' s messages anymore, Min could not help but feel a bit empty. She contemplated whether she should text him instead, simply to ask how he was doing. Min did not have the courage to message him , however, and she put her phone back in her pocket.

On her walk with Mikkang, Min passed by a particular brownish-beige apartment complex that Kikwang would point to when Min and Kikwang would be on their way to the movies. He said the color reminds him of ddeokbokki. Seeing the similarities to the rice snack as Min and Kikwang would gaze at the house made them grow hungry. They somehow find themselves walking to the night markets to buy some spicy ddeokbokki before watching the movie they had planned to view.

It was cold those nights but Min and Kikwang would sit on a bench eating their rice cakes. During one date, Kikwang told Min to be careful since the food was hot and took one of the noodle-shaped cakes and stabbed it with a toothpick. He picked it up and placed it next to Min's mouth in an attempt to feed her the spicy morsel.

“ I can feed myself. I'm not a child,” Min responded and picked up another ddeokbokki piece and started chewing on it.

“ So says the girl who requests for me to give her piggy back rides,” Kikwang smiled as he spoke and ate the cake himself. The two happily enjoyed munching on the cakes until there was only one left. Min took a toothpick and put the noodle-like spicky cake through it's wooden body. She offered it to Kikwang , saying “For you.”

Kikwang smiled his precious eye-smile and then opened his mouth wide open, saying “Ahhh”.

“Kikwang, what are you doing?,” Min asked, chuckling to herself.

“ You may not be a child but I am, ” He responded and waited until Min would drop the ddeokbooki into his tongue. Min laughed again and fed him the cake.

“Mash-iss-eo-yo!” Kikwang shouted and looked at Min. He removed the hat she was wearing and fixed her hair underneath before placing the hat back on her head.

“ Let's go! Movie now, ” Kikwang suggested, speaking in English.

“Haha, you mean 'let's go to the movies now',” Min corrected him.

“Let's go to the ..MOVIES...now. Sorry sorry,” Kikwang said again in English and smiled.

“ Aigoo!...How is Beast going to be big hallyu stars when one of their members has such poor English skills? What will our Kikwang do? Tsk Tsk,” Min responded as they walked to the movie theater while holding hands.

“You...teach me?, ” Kikwang suggested, still speaking in English.

“ Hmm, I guess I could,” Min said in Korean and switching back to English ended by saying, “Deal”.

“ Thank you, Thank you. Teacher is really, really pretty,” Kikwang smiled as he spoke, “ And teacher is y girl hehe.”

“ Haha, that's teacher is A y girl.”

“ My girlfriend is A y girl,” Kikwang said pronouncing clearly each of the English words and kissed Min on her cheek which made her blush.

“Flirt...,” Min said pretending to punch Kikwang's arm, “ But my boyfriend is handsome. ”

“ Min, let's reach the top together as Beast and Miss A,” Kikwang stated in his Seoul dialect, “ We can tour in Europe, Australia, and the U.S.. And you can show me around LA or NY when we perform there.”

“ I'd love to do that! Man, I miss those places. Hope you can be there with me the next time I go back to my old homes...,” Min started to say, “... Oh wait! We'll visit NY and LA as friends? We're only dating for a month.”

“ Oh yeah, right...of course, as friends!,” Kikwang responded with a faint, forced laugh. The two of them walked in silence for a bit before Kikwang spoke again.

“ Min...I know I have a bad reputation and I know that it was careless of me to just blurt out that you are my ideal on a show. But this is...this is nice. I'm glad you asked me to date you.”

Min was smiling as Kikwang stated his honest feelings. It was rather chilly and she took control of Kikwang's right arm and wrapped it around her shoulders.

“C'mon, we'll be late for the movies,” she told him as they walked across the streets at night in Seoul with Kikwang's arm around Min, keeping her warm.

Min was feeling a little bit cold that morning as she was walking Mikkang. She felt a tug on her hand holding the leash as the small, fluffy dog tried to scurry ahead but was restrained by Min's patient pace. She looked at the street she stumbled upon after her mind was lost in a happy memory for a minute. All this looks so familiar, she thought. She recognized the skinny, crooked tree that stood in front of an office building. She recognized the rows of identical apartment buildings and then she stopped herself in front of a particular complex that was grayish and tall. It was Beast's dorm building. She,somehow, had sub-consciously led herself and Mikkang to Kikwang's dormitory.

She told Mikkang to stay still for a minute and she stared upwards to the direction of where Beast's apartment window and balcony was. She wondered if Kikwang was still in the building sleeping or if he just woke up. She also thought that he may have left already to an early schedule. Along with his Beast activities, Kikwang had solo schedules like music video cameos, commercial shootings, emceeing for TV programs which take up a lot of his time.

Sometimes when Min would meet with Kikwang, he would look absolutely exhausted with large dark circles under his eyes and pale skin. He would stumble occasionally as he walks as if he would pass out from fatigue. But yet when he appears in front of Min, he smiles brightly and tries to show no signs of tiredness. He turns away from her sight when he yawns and talks to her energetically even if his voice is a little strained from practices.

At these thoughts, Min hoped that Kikwang was taking care of himself and his health. She doesn't want him to overdo everything and make himself sick. A part of her wanted to go inside and upstairs to Beast's dorm, but she held herself back. It will only hurt if I see him..

Just then, Min heard her name being called. She turned to see Dong Woon and Nicole in jogging tracksuits walking up to her. Dong Woon look bewildered but Nicole waved as she saw her.

“Min, how are you?,” Nicole said brightly as she wiped sweat off her forehead with a small towel.

Min was a little embarrassed to be caught by them in front of Beast's dorm building and found it hard to form a response to such a simple question. She just nodded and lied, saying she was doing good, even though she had been feeling a little lost and blue lately. Nicole smiled and petted Mikkang, but Dong Woon was silent. He stared at Min intensely as if she was a ghost from the past and a tint of sympathy gleamed in his eyes as well. The awkward, uncomfortable encounter was more than Min could bare.

“ Well, I was just passing by as I walk Mikkang. So... I'm gonna go,” Min said and turned in the direction back to her home. She walked a good block and tried to fight the tears but her eyes watered a little.

Min has been noticing that she has been like a water faucet lately with the tears coming and going every other day. It has been like that ever since Kikwang had come into her life. She was feeling agitated at the easy display of emotion from her eyes that she has developed.

She thought of playing one game of Modern Warfare when she gets home to relieve her tensions before heading to work. Hwayoung texted her saying that she was back from the doctor so she returned the tiny, furry canine to her owner when she reached her grandmother's. Then, she headed upstairs to seek the company of her game console and army soldiers waiting to be obliterated.

As she reached her apartment however, she received a phone call from Hyoyeon who is in SNSD and is one of her closest friends. She called Min to ask her if she was her surprise guest on the episode of KBS' s 'Win Win' she was appearing on. Min is Hyoyeon's surprise guest for Thursday's recording and she completely forgot about it. Luckily, as Min remembered her agreement to be on the program, she was able to lie on the spot and say she had a schedule in Busan that day. Hyoyeon, of course, believed her best friend and started thinking of other possible friends who would be on the show as her special guest. She told Min she would talk to her later and hung up.

Min smiled to herself as she got off the phone with her lively friend. She thought it might be nice to be on a program with Hyoyeon since she hasn't seen her friend in a month since they both have such demanding schedules. A truth didn't dawn on her until she was halfway through a sniping mission in her video game. She had forgotten that Kikwang was a “ Win Win” mc. It was the program she was guesting. Oh no, would it be awkward? It's too soon...What do I do?

Min decided to be brave and text Kikwang for the first time since that night at the party after the concert.

She wrote : “ Just to remind you... I'm going to be Hyoyeon's guest on Thursday. I hope things will be fine between us.”

She waited for Kikwang's response as she got ready for work that day.

Author's Note:  I finally updated! I'm sorry it took so long. I also made some new fanvids on my channel : Lady87red1 a couple of months ago if you haven't seen them yet.( Also, I can't fully say the reasons because you all will think I'm crazy but I believe now that Minkwang is definitely real and they're most likely together <3.)  haha, anyway... I think I'm a bit rusty in my writing but I hope the chapter is okay.