A week had passed since Soonyoung and SEVENTEEN arrived from Singapore.
Wonwoo, Vernon and Junhui were still in the Han mansion, spending their days leisurely. Pledis had given the members a month off from schedules and activities after their successful concert tours. Tessa herself stayed home all this time, attending to her guests. As Wonwoo guessed, having the other members around deterred Gyu’s gift-giving plans.
Her parents were accepting of the members in their home. It's not like any of them were strangers anyway. As someone said before, these guys were Pledis’ cash cows as of late.
Besides, having them here meant lesser chances of being involved in whatever scandals Dispatch may come up with.
Not that any of the SVT members gathered here were rambunctious. In fact, it seemed like it was a gathering of the introverts.
Minkyung stopped by every few days to spend some time with her brother and her best friend.
Today, everyone was gathered for breakfast.
Earlier that day, Han JaeBeom and Michelle had left to meet some friends at the golf club and so it was Tessa, Minkyung and the four SVT members at the table. Hyun had also joined them this morning, on a holiday from his military service. Hwan had gone home to Jieun.
“Could you pass me the pancakes, juseyo?” Hyun motioned to Soonyoung. (Please)
Soonyoung took a glance at the lazy susan in the middle of the table. “Uh, which one exactly hyung?” On it were Kimchi pancakes, Scallion pancakes and Enoki.
“The Enoki, baby.” Tessa answered. “Those are Kuya Hyun’s favorite.”
“Gotcha.” Soonyoung shifted to lift the plate in front of him and handed it off to the younger twin.
“Gomawo.” Hyun said, returning the plate to Soonyoung after he placed three pieces of Enoki on his plate and three as well on Minkyung’s plate. (Thank you.)
“Gwaenchanayo, Kuya.” The performance leader replied. (No worries, bro!)
Vernon looked up. “What does that word mean, hyung?”
Tessa smiled. “It’s a word in my language, Nonie-oppa. It means an older brother. Similar to hyung.”
“Yeah, Hoshi has been using that word more and more when he speaks to Hyun.” Minkyung shared.
“I don’t see anything wrong with it, though.” Soonyoung defended himself. “The Hans speak so many languages, I feel like I need to at least learn to speak one more language. Why not start with Tagalog?
“That’s Tessa’s native language, right? Tagalog?” Wonwoo clarified as he bit into an egg roll.
“Aniyo, Wonu-oppa.” Tessa replied. “Tagalog is the national language. My native language is Bisaya.” (No)
“The what-now?” Wonwoo raised an eyebrow while the Han siblings giggled.
“Is it hard to learn?” The older rapper asked.
“I’ve known it all my life so I can’t really answer that question.” Tessa confessed.
“Hyun knows Tagalog and Bisaya as well.” Minkyung shared.
“To be honest, it’s a language I’ve been exposed to since I was young. The family makes regular visits to the Philippines plus Tessa and Eomma speak it here and there. Hyung, Appa and I just naturally picked it up.” Hyun informed them.
“Would you like to learn Tagalog?” Jun asked Wonwoo.
“Why not?” Wonwoo shrugged. “Sounds like Hoshi-hyung wants to. Perhaps it could help him if he had a learning buddy."
“Wei shen me bu shi Putonghua?” (Why not Mandarin?) Jun muttered.
Hyun and Tessa laughed.
“Pian ai?” Hyun put forth. (Preference?)
“Huo.” Tessa replied. (Maybe) “Ta yi qian you mei you yao qiu ni jiao ta?” (Has he asked you to teach him before?)
Junhui shook his head and answered with a pouty face. “Bu shi.” (No.)
“Where’s Minghao when you need him…” Wonwoo rolled his eyes. “He would at least explain to me what’s going on here.”
Minkyung laughed. “Finally someone who understands what I go through when they’re all gathered together.”
“Jieun-unnie would say the same thing early on in their relationship with Kuya Hwan.” Tessa assured her best friend. “She’s fluent in at least two languages outside of Hangul now.”
“It only took her six years!” Minkyung exclaimed.
“Not really, jagiya. Jieun-noona did not even attempt it in the first five years of their relationship.” Hyun told his girlfriend.
“Oh.” Minkyung raised her eyebrows. “That doesn’t sound so bad. Which ones can she speak now?”
“English and Bisaya. She picked it up fairly quickly once she decided to learn it. We speak so much of it around the house, Jieun-noona couldn’t really escape it.” Hyun continued.
“Kaya ra na nimo, te.” Soonyoung said.
“Huh?” Minkyung stared at her brother. (What?)
“He said you can do it.” Hyun translated.
“How does he know how to say that?” The older Kwon asked.
“I’m guessing he asked Tessa.” Hyun surmised.
“Hoshi-hyung seems to be a quick study.” Wonwoo commented.
“Uh, why does the accent seem a little too strong for Tagalog?” Vernon asked.
Tessa giggled and swallowed her toast. “Because it’s not Tagalog, Nonie-oppa. It’s Bisaya.”
Both SVT rappers looked at each other.
“My brain is just jam-packed with languages whenever Tessa is around.” Vernon shook his head.
“I’m sorry?” Tessa looked at him, not sure if it was a good or a bad thing.
“So this is how it’s like being in the company of the elites.” Minkyung teased.
Hyun and Tessa laughed.
“Now, now. There’s no need to be snarky.” Hyun tickled his girlfriend. “Besides jagiya, you know of our humble beginnings. This life that we lead now is due to so many factors and one of those is the hard work of your brother and his co-members.”
Minkyung smiled lovingly at Hyun. In that moment, she fell even more for him.
Tessa cleared her throat. “Literally, each room here could house all the SVT members and Appa or Eomma wouldn’t mind. Oh and speaking of languages, you guys know your fair share of it. You literally speak to your audience in their native language whenever you go on tour.”
“Memorizing and actually knowing the little nuances of each language are two different things.” Wonwoo expressed.
“You have a point.” Junhui agreed. “Speaking as someone who had to learn a new language, I had to memorize key phrases at the start. But now that I understand a little bit more of the Korean language, the beauty of Hangul doesn’t get lost in translation most of the time. When it comes to our concert ments, most of us are really good at memorizing them. But when we get the chance to speak to a native, we’ll end up dazed and confused.”
“I mean, you DO memorize lyrics and dance steps for a living…..” Hyun teased.
“Wuji-hyung is quite good at it.” Vernon said. Junhui, Soonyoung and Wonwoo nodded in agreement to their current maknae’s observation.
“I’m just in awe of you guys.” Minkyung confessed. “I literally can’t sing to save my life and here you all are singing and dancing in Japanese. You actually released albums in Japanese. And then you go on tour and manage to learn all these amazing words.”
“Don’t forget the comments on our Lives, noona.” Soonyoung added.
Minkyung nodded. “Man, being an idol is not easy. I have so much respect for all you guys who went through so much and are still continuing to learn every single day.” She then turned to Tessa. “And it’s people like you who helped these guys build on their dream, Tessa. They say Kpop is all about a dream, engineering the perfect person in all disciplines so that the general public have an image to hold on to. But it’s also about helping the idols actually achieve their dream.”
Suddenly, Soonyoung’s phone rang and he dug through his pocket. “Saved by the bell. We were starting to venture into the Kdrama scene.” Soonyoung joked to which the entire table responded with hearty laughter. Clearly that was the icebreaker they all needed.
Looking at the caller ID, Soonyoung smiled. “Yeoboseyo?” (Hello?) He turned to look at Tessa, speaking to the person on the other end of the phone. “Hold on, dongsaeng.”
“Is it someone we’ve been hoping would come to meet us soon?” Tessa smiled.
Soonyoung nodded. “They’re here.”
“Like here, here? Or just landed in Seoul, here?” Tessa clarified.
“Here like, walking through the front door here.” Soonyoung laughed. “They arrived a couple of days ago, I think.”
“Omo! Jjinja?! Ni-ki’s here?” Tessa squealed. (Oh my! Seriously?)
“Him, Sunoo and Jay.”
Tessa motioned to get up just as one of their helpers ushered the three younger idols in.
“Guys!!!! You’re all here.” The youngest Han smiled wide.
The three bowed to everyone at the breakfast table. “Annyeonghaseyo.” (Hi!)
Several different greetings erupted all at once. A few of the people at the round breakfast table started scooting closer to make room for the three Enhypen members.
“It’s really alright, hyungs and noonas. We’ve had breakfast before coming over.” Sunoo informed them.
“We can still sit at the table, though, can’t we?” Jay stepped forward to take the seat beside Tessa.
“I, for one, don’t mind eating more.” Ni-ki declared as he took the seat beside Soonyoung. “Kamsahamnida.” Enhypen’s maknae said. (Thank you)
Sunoo walked over to the chair beside Hyun. “Annyeonghaseyo, Hyun-nim.”
“Oh, you know my name?” Hyun was surprised.
“I’m surprised that he knew you were Hyun and didn’t have to ask if you were Hwan-oppa.” Minkyung added.
Sunoo covered his mouth as he giggled. “Joesonghamnida!” (Sorry!) He leaned in close to Jay and asked, “Did I do something wrong?”
Jay pat Sunoo’s thigh. “You’re doing great, Sunoo-ya.”
Tessa looked at Hyun. “Kuya, they know that Kuya Hwan got married. They also know that Minkyung-unnie is Soonyoung’s sister and your girlfriend. Unnie and Soonyoung are practically twins so it makes sense that Sunoo knew who you were.”
“And how would they know that?” Hyun raised an eyebrow.
Soonyoung rolled his eyes. “Hyung, you’re like the royal family of Pledis. That should be all the answer you need.”
Hyun shrugged. “No harm, no foul, Sunoo.”
“Kamsahamnida, Hyun-nim.”, The younger thanked him. (Thank you.)
“So, what brings you guys here?” Vernon asked the three.
Jay ate the egg roll off his chopstick and swallowed before answering Vernon. “Hoshi-hyung invited us to have a fun day today, hyung.”
“I love how he invites people over to a house that doesn’t belong to him.” Minkyung rolled her eyes.
Junhui snickered. “Makes me feel guilty for practically inviting myself to come and stay for a week now.”
“It’s such a comfortable house, though.” Wonwoo reasoned. “Everything you need is right inside the gates.”
“It’s the perfect place to quarantine ourselves.” Vernon added.
“Not going to lie, I would have loved to quarantine here at the height of the pandemic.” Soonyoung confessed.
Minkyung giggled. “Isn’t that the truth?”
The Han siblings laughed. “It definitely was a comfortable place to get boxed in.” Tessa shared.
“The three of us were kind of quarantining together in 2020.” Jay quipped.
“If by quarantining together, you mean filming a survival show and trying to debut? Then yes, that’s what we were doing.” Sunoo teased.
“Looks like it worked out well for you.” Soonyoung praised.
Sunoo gave Soonyoung his famous eye smile.
“I guess it worked well for your family, noona, since you guys seem to have a pretty good relationship with each other.” Ni-ki joined the conversation.
“They do. They really do, I can vouch for that.” Minkyung stared lovingly at her boyfriend.
“We have fights too.” Tessa revealed.
“Nah, it’s more like teasing you a whole lot.” Hyun countered.
“Don’t even believe a single word of that, Nishimura.” Soonyoung warned. “They just like to give off the impression that they are like every other pair of siblings out there.”
“Aren’t we?” Tessa and Hyun asked at the same time.
“The only person close to even living the day-to-day life that you two have is Jay.” Soonyoung said. “But he kind of chose to go a different route and learn more about the outside world.”
“Clearly, the kid has the kahunas.” Vernon commented.
“What did I do???” Jay squeaked in between biting into the Enoki mushroom pancakes.
The entire table erupted into laughter.
“Nothing.” Wonwoo told the younger idol. “You were just born into a life of privilege.”
“But it's not about what you have, hyung.” Jay argued. “It’s more about what you do with what you were given.”
Hyun smiled at Jay. “I like you, Park Jongseong.”
Jay smiled back at the oldest person at the table. “Thank you, sir!”
