Cruising with Noonas

2: Roommates

Sonia was shocked by Eriko's sudden sprout of mandarin words! 

"辛苦你啦! (It's been hard on you!)" Eriko said suddenly.

"Oh my god!" Sonia exclaimed and almost caused an accident for not looking, but she regained composure. "You know Mandarin as well?"

Eriko smiled to see Sonia's reaction and revealed, "I am actually part Chinese if you're interested to know."

Sonia was connecting some mental dots and asked Eriko aloud, "Oh, part Chinese? What's the rest? Korean? Japanese? Eriko is definitely a Japanese name, isn't it?"

Eriko seldom shared about her family with people. But she does reveal to people who are curious and people she has positive vibes with, such as Sonia right now. So she explained, "I have a Chinese-Korean father and a Japanese-Taiwanese mother. My father is really a genius who came up with a name that could be used in Japanese, Chinese and Korean. "

Sonia was really surprised by what Eriko just said and felt that they have just grown closer speaking & knowing another common language apart from Korean.

Sonia boldly suggested to Eriko, "Then, can I call you 爱丽姐 (Aili-jie, which is equivalent to Ae-ri unni), or Ae-ri unni?"

(Author's Note: In Korean culture, employees are supposed to be called by their work titles. If one would like to get closer to another, they could drop the work titles and call by their names-sshi or address the older one with name-unni/oppa for ladies or name-noona/hyung for the guys.)

"It's up to you, I don't mind anything." Eriko said. She always felt that titles are rather restrictive and honestly, it's just a name between people. While true-blue Koreans would mind hierarchy, she was absolutely fine with it. If anything, titles actually come with distance between people.

Sonia was curious if the boys knew about this, and questioned. "Does anyone in BTS know about it? That you're actually part-Chinese and know how to speak the language as well?"

Eriko shook her head and said, "I don't think so. I don't think a lot of people know about this." She saw Sonia laugh and asked, "Why? What are you laughing at?"

Sonia was kind of relieved and commented, "You know, unni, you're actually quite friendly to chat with."

Eriko was surprised, "I AM friendly ok! Who told you I'm not? Did you hear some weird stories about me being unfriendly somewhere?"

"No!" Sonia quickly clarified, "I mean, when you don't smile, you can appear quite aloof and people may think you're unapproachable and hostile."

Eriko was quick to apologise, "I'm sorry. I'm actually just very tired all the time. But... when I'm well rested, I'm actually very very very friendly, you know?"

Sonia said firmly, "Now I know." 

-

About 30 minutes later, Sonia stopped the car at the front gate of the dorm, where she pressed the button of a video intercom that acts as a doorbell.

The person who answered it was Jungkook, who greeted Sonia through the video intercom, "Oh, Sonia noona is here."

Sonia smiled at the video intercom and said, "Jungkook ah, please help me open the gate. Thank you very much."

"Ok." Jungkook replied, then activated the button to open the front gate.

Sonia drove into the driveway of the 3-storey private property in the Hannam Hill area. It was a relatively quiet neighbourhood which was exactly what the guys wanted. She parked at the garage lots that allowed up to 4 parking spaces.