It was the morning of October 7th, just a few hours after the trio had landed in Manila.
The SEVENTEEN team members had decided to have breakfast at one of the restaurants at the hotel.
Seated at one of the three private rooms in Hua Yuan, Tessa split her chopsticks down the middle. She and Soonyoung had come down to join the rest of the group. She was still a little tired, basically only having a little less than four hours of sleep.
Junhui yawned loudly.
Dino lightly tapped his thigh. "Didn't get enough sleep, Junnie-hyung?"
"Whoops, Dui bu qi." The older Chinese idol covered his mouth. (Sorry!)
"Mei guan xi." Minghao and Tessa said at the same time. They looked at each other, beyond Seokmin who was between them, and grinned. (No worries.)
Soonyoung placed two shrimp dumplings on Tessa's plate and three on his. "Did you guys know that Tessa can speak Mandarin?"
Seungcheol nodded. "Ne. They spoke in Mandarin a lot when I came to visit you guys at the trainee building."
"Jinjja?" (Really?) Soonyoung's brows furrowed. "Why didn't I notice?"
Seungcheol shrugged.
Jun adjusted his seat and looked at Tessa. "There he goes again, asking us questions that we can't possibly answer."
"Wo men xian zai hai bu xiguan ma?" Minghao deadpanned. (Aren't we used to this by now?)
Tessa burst out into laughter. "Dui. Dui. Dui. Ni shuo de dui." (Right! You said it right!)
"Facts!" Junhui added.
Jeonghan looked at Soonyoung. "Could you pass me the fried rice please, Hosh?"
Soonyoung took it from the space in front of him and handed it to Jun who was on his right side. Dino received the plate from Jun and handed it to Jeonghan, who was seated between Dino and Seungcheol.
"Anyone else want rice?" Seungcheol asked as he took a few scoops for himself as well.
"Me please, hyung." Vernon spoke up. He emptied the contents into his plate and then stood up to place it at the waiting table at the corner of the room.
Seungcheol added more braised pork ribs to his plate plus some sweet and sour fish. He offered them to Woozi, who was seated across him.
The vocal unit leader stretched out his plate to receive the ribs and the fish.
"We may need to order more." Seungkwan suggested, biting into his steamed dumplings.
"What do you guys want?" Tessa asked.
Soonyoung stood up to look for the waiter.
"More dumplings for me!" Minghao requested.
Seokmin, who was seated beside Tessa, cleared his throat. "I'd like some Wonton soup, if that's okay."
Seungkwan agreed to Seokmin's order. "Same here, I would appreciate a little bit of warm soup."
"What about you, Jisoo-oppa?" Tessa asked the idol seated between Minghao and Woozi.
"I'm really fine with anything that they order." He replied.
"Okie Dokie. Gotcha." Tessa smiled.
Soonyoung came in followed by a male waiter.
"Hello po. Good morning." The waiter greeted hesitantly.
Tessa looked to Seungcheol for permission to order for everyone and the leader nodded.
"Hi, Kuya!" Tessa started. "Limang order po ng siomai. Yung quail egg." (Hi, sir. Five orders of dumplings. Quail egg.)
The waiter looked up at her in surprise. "Marunong po kayong mag Tagalog, mam?" (You know how to speak Tagalog, mam?)
Tessa smiled. "Syempre naman po. Pinoy tayo eh." (Of course. I'm Filipino.)
"Di po halata, mam. Mukha kayong Kano." (It's not obvious, mam. You look like an American.)
"Ay, sorry naman po. Me lahing British ako, di Amerikano." (Sorry to disappoint you. I'm half-British not American.)
The waiter laughed nervously. "Di talaga halatang Pinoy kayo, mam. Lalo't blondie po kayo." (It's really not easy to guess your Filipino heritage, mam. Especially since you have blonde hair.)
"Silver po ito, kuya." (It's actually silver, sir.) Tessa corrected him.
"Chogiyo. Dangsin-eun eumsig-eul jumunhago isseubnikka?" (Excuse me. Are you ordering food?) Soonyoung interrupted, placing his arm over Tessa.
"Joesonghamnida." (Sorry.) Tessa replied.
"Ikaw kasi, kuya. Daldal mo. Nagalit tuloy." Tessa joked, speaking to the waiter. (It's all your fault, sir. We were too talkative that he got a little irritated.)
The waiter bowed slightly. "Sorry po talaga mam. Na-excite lang ako kasi akala ko mahihirapan akong kunin order nyo." (I'm really sorry, mam. I got excited coz I was afraid that I would have a hard time taking your order.)
"Chill lang tayo, kuya. Baka tuluyan nang magalit tong tigre sa tabi ko." (Chillax. We don't want this tiger beside me to get angry.)
The waiter took out his notepad and pen. "Sige po. Limang order ng quail egg na siomai. Me additional pa po ba tayo maliban dun?" (Sure. Five orders of quail egg dumplings. Anything else?)
"Opo. Tatlong order ng wonton soup. Dalawang platter ng fried rice. Tatlong sweet and sour fish. Tatlong braised pork ribs." She sounded off. (Yes, three orders of wanton soup, two platters of fried rice, three orders of sweet and sour fish and three orders of braised pork ribs.)
"Ito na po ba?" (Is this all, mam?)
Tessa looked at Wonwoo and Mingyu, seated directly across her and Soonyoung. "What about you, guys? Want anything?"
The duo shook their heads.
"Yun na lang po muna, kuya. O-order na lang po kami ulit pag kulang." (That's it for now, sir. We'll just order again if we need more.)
"Okay po, mam. Repeat ko lang po order natin. Limang order ng quail egg siomai. Tatlong order ng wonton soup. Dalawang platter ng fried rice. Tatlong sweet and sour fish. Tatlong braised pork ribs." (Okay, mam. Let me repeat your order. Five orders of quail egg dumplings, three orders of wanton soup, two platters of fried rice, three orders of sweet and sour fish and three orders of braised pork ribs.)
Tessa nodded. "Okay po."
"Antay lang po tayo ng mga twenty minutes, mam. Salamat po." (There'll be about a twenty minute wait for your food, mam. Thank you.)
"Salamat po, kuya." (Thank you, sir.)
Soonyoung kept his eyes on the waiter as he left the room. "What was that about, baby?"
"He was just excited that someone here spoke Tagalog." Tessa explained.
"We do have a few English speakers. They could have given the order to the waiter." Soonyoung pouted.
Tessa pinched Soonyoung's cheek. "Baby, you're right. You would have been able to get by really well with your English-speaking members but I'm already here. I thought I'd make myself useful."
"Were you speaking Tagalog, Tessa?" Joshua asked.
"Ne, Jisoo-oppa."
"I've heard quite a bit of the language back in LA. There's a lot of Filipinos around where I used to live." Joshua shared.
"Cool beans." Tessa replied. "Are you still friends with some of them?"
"See they were more like acquaintances than close friends but yeah, if they ever reached out I wouldn't turn them down." The older Korean-American told her.
"My head is starting to spin from all the languages we've been using at the breakfast table today." Seokmin confessed.
"Mingyu and I are just soaking it all in." Wonwoo finally spoke up.
"The silence is normal for you, Wonu. It's Mingyu's silence that's a little deafening." Jeonghan communicated.
"Yeah, he seems to be a little silent today." Minghao added.
Mingyu looked up from moving his dumpling around his plate. "Gwaenchana." (I'm okay.)
"He probably didn't sleep well last night." Wonwoo mentioned.
"Ne. I didn't." Mingyu agreed.
"Why not?" Woozi asked.
Mingyu looked at Tessa for a brief moment and looked away. "Must be the beds. I may need some time to get used to them but we barely stay in one city long enough for me to acclimate."
"I don't recall you having this problem during the North American tour, hyung." Vernon quipped. "Or our previous tours, for that matter."
"Yeah, not that I recall." Wonwoo nudged Mingyu. "Let's just focus on enjoying our travels and Asian tour, Gyu."
Mingyu smiled weakly and nodded. "I guess."
The first of the orders came in just then. Two different waiters entered the private room carrying with them the wonton soup and the sweet and sour fish.
Minghao looked at Seokmin. "Lai ba!" (Let's go/Let's dig in!)
Seokmin looked at him with a confused expression. "I'm Korean, hyung. The other Chinese dude is seating across me."
"I know. But this was your order." Minghao explained.
"Chi fan le!" Jun added. (Let's eat!)
"We've always been chaotic as a group but with Tessa here, we've officially become a madhouse." Woozi teased.
Seungcheol shook his head. "Welcome to the table of Babel, y'all."
