Love in the Air

Chapter 5

When I wake up the next morning I can hear music coming from next door. I remind myself that those boys are too beautiful to be angry at and as I roll over, I realize I would have no reason to be angry because it already 10 o'clock. I get up and get dressed and decide to call Jenny since it about 5 o'clock in California.
"Hey... So you hear that... That's the sound I woke up to... The sound of VIXX practicing," I tease.
"Oh shut up, no need to rub it in," Jenny spits out angrily.
I laugh and apologize. "Want to go over? As much as I hate embarrassing myself in front of them, I really like them and I want to see them again," I say.
"Oh my gosh can you please!"
"Okay but don't embarrass me okay?"
"No promises."
I head out and when I get to their door I hesitate for a second. I'm about to knock when the door suddenly burst open. "Hi Rigi! I saw you walking towards our house from the window. Nice to see you again," says Hakyeon.
"Hi Hakyeon-ssi," I reply.
"You can just call me Hakyeon, Rigi," he smiles.
"You can call me oppa," Jaehwan says as he jumps up behind Hakyeon and winks at me. I laugh and roll my eyes at Jaehwan.
"I came by to see what you guys were up to and to introduce you guys to my friend from America." I hold up my iPad which Jahwan snatches out of my hands immediately.
"Hi friend!" he yells at the screen. I hear Jenny scream and I know she's freaking out.
"That's Jenny. She's a big fan of your band," I say.
"Oh that's great. Let's go into the practice room and we can introduce her to everyone," Hakyeon says.
"Oh you're a fan! That's great! Who's you're favorite? I'm your favorite right?" Jaehwan continues speaking to Jenny, ignoring Hakyeon and I.
"She doesn't speak Korean," I say to Jaehwan.
"Oh.... In that case I'm just going to say I'm her favorite since she can't tell anyone else otherwise," Jaehwan laughs. We walk into the practice room where Hyuk, Wonsik, Taekwoon and Hongbin are sitting on the chairs on the side of the room and drinking their waters.
"Rigi is here! She brought her friend from America too, say hi to Jenny," Hakyeon announces.
"She's a fan of ours! She says I'm her favorite," Jaehwan says.
"Hyung how would you know that, she doesn't speak Korean," Hyuk says.
"What?! How do you know that?!" exclaims Jaehwan.
"I met her last night when I went to return Rigi's pin," Hyuk says.
"Well... I'm still her favorite," says Jaehwan.
"Okay hyung," Hyuk chuckles.
"Jenny, who's your bias?" I ask.
"Huh?" she replies without bothering to take her eyes off of Jaehwan
"Jenny!" I yell.
"What?" she says finally coming to her senses.
"Who's your bias?" I ask again.
"Do I have to answer this... I feel bad," she replies.
"Just tell me, is it Jaehwan?" I ask.
"Uuuh," she hesitates, "no it wasn't Ken. He was always a bias ruined but not my bias."
l say nothing and stand there slightly confused for a little bit before I think, "Oh duh stage names." Finally I turn my attention to Jaehwan, "you weren't her favorite," I say and give him a bit of a smug smile.
"Who is?" Hakyeon and Hyuk ask as Jaehwan hands the iPad to Hakyeon and pouts.
"Now they want to know how your bias really is," I say to her. Hakyeon holds the iPad up in front of him and the and all the boys are behind him so she can see everyone now.
"You... Like me?" Hakyeon asks in the best English he can manage. Jenny squeals and finally nods yes. "I win!" Hakyeon exclaims. The rest of the boys pout but Taekwoon, in his seat in the corner, simply turns his head away from the screen and drinks his water.
I laugh until I realize Jenny is speaking quietly and Hakyeon seems to be listening intently. Then I realize she's trying to speak in Korean, she's talking very quietly and Hakyeon had moved a little away from the rest of us so I figure she's probably trying to tell him how much she likes him or something and decide to leave them alone. As I start to walk towards Wonsik who had just found a Rubik's cube, I hear Hakyeon say "oh you mean dance?" I continue to ignore them sit next to Wonsik.
"You're stage name is Ravi right?" I ask.
"Yes. Did you know us before you moved next door?" he asks.
"I knew some of your songs. I never really paid much attention to all your videos or learned all your names. I really like the way you rap though, I listened to Where Should I Go when it came out and I downloaded it immediately because I really liked it," I saw truthfully.
"Ah thank you," he bows his head and smiles.
I smile back and I feel my heart tighten. I try to think of something to quickly change the subject so I don't blush or embarrass myself. "Are you good at solving these Rubik's cubes?" I ask him finally.
"Nope," he laughs. "You?"
"Ditto. I've only done it once."
As I'm finally beginning to become more comfortable with this group of boys I hear Hakyeon yell, "Rigi! You did a choreography to one of our songs?!" I blush instantly and don't quite know what to say. I realize that's what Jenny must have been trying to tell him the whole time. I run to Hakyeon, grab the iPad and hang up on her instantly.
"What did she tell you?" I ask Hakyeon.
He seems surprised at how quickly and ruthlessly I moved. I begin to feel a little embarrassed because I was rude but can't help but feel more angry and embarrassed that she told Hakyeon. "She just told me that you made a dance for one of our songs but you didn't want to tell us."
"Yeah... I didn't want you guys to know because I don't normally like to show people my dances. I guess I'm just shy. I'm sorry I was so rude just now, I was upset because I didn't want her to tell you guys yet," I explain.
"It's okay Rigi, I understand. I'd like to see it but if you're not comfortable with that right now then you don't have to show us," he says kindly. I smile a little awkwardly and again don't really know what to do. I get an apology text from Jenny that also explains why she did it so I skim it quickly and reply with a simple "it's okay."
Hyuk seemed to sense my awkwardness. "Let's go get jjajangmyun!" he says.
"Okay!" JaeHwan jumps up. They begin to walk out the door, as Hyuk passes he purses his lips at me and I smile back thankfully. Wonsik smiles and pats me on the back. Finally, it's just Hakyeon and I. He looks down at me and smiles warmly as he says, "let's go." He puts his hand on my shoulder and we walk out.
When we walk into the living room everyone is bickering about whether we should order it to be delivered or eat down at the restaurant. "Taekwoon what do you want," Jaehwan asks.
There's a moment of silence as everyone awaits his answer. "Take out," he says. As though Taekwoon's soft spoken words were law, they decide on delivery. As we wait for the food we play games and they ask me about America. I can't help but feel at home here and I'm glad I don't feel like a total outcast like I thought I would since I was moving to a whole new country. When the food arrives Hongbin collects the money and gets up to pay.
"Wait," I call out to him. I pull out enough money to cover my food and hold it out to him.
He looks at the money and shakes his head, "I got it, don't worry." He smiles at me and heads to the door. I don't want to be a burden to them so I after he pays and Hyuk and Jaehwan bring in the food, I try hold the money out to him again. "Rigi, it's fine. Just do a dance with me sometime and we'll call it even," he winks. I blush and shove the money back into my pocket.
I waddle back over to the couch and sit on the end next to Hakyeon. Hyuk hands Hakyeon and me a bowl and some chopsticks and we begin to open our food when Jaehwan comes and wedges himself between us. "Hey," he smiles. He mixes his food and shoves an unholy amount of noodles into his mouth. I look around and realize that all of are doing the exact same thing. I look at Taekwoon in complete confusion and think, "how does he fit so much food into his mouth? I'm impressed." Just then he looks up and we make eye contact. Despite having a mouthful of food, his eyes look as intense as ever. I quickly look down at my food and begin mixing it around. When I look up again he no longer has food in his mouth but he's still looking at me. He tilts his head ever so slightly and looks me up and down. I blush and quickly turn my attention to my food and shove some in my mouth. I hear him chuckle a bit and when I look up again he's shoving noodles in his mouth again.
By the time I'm a quarter of the way though my food, JaeHwan yells "finished! That was delicious." He looks at me and my plate and says with a smile on his face, "I can help you with that."
"Let the girl eat, Jaehwan," Hongbin says with a mouthful of food.
"She's barely even eaten," he says indignantly.
"I'm a slow eater. I don't think I can fit as much food in my mouth as you can," I retort.
"I was kidding Rigi-ah, take your time and eat up," Jaehwan smiles kindly and gets up to take his plate over to the kitchen. I sit there slightly confounded because he normally likes to torment me.
I smile to myself a little bit and continue eating but then begin to wonder how much food I can fit in my mouth. I grab as much jjajangmyun as I can with my chopsticks and put as much of it as I can in my mouth. I bite off what does fit and chew what's in my mouth as best as I can with my filled cheeks. Once I finish what's in my mouth I can't help but feel somewhat impressed with myself. "JaeHwan," I call out.
"Yes?" he answers.
"I guess I can fit a lot of food in my mouth," I say.
"I knew you could do it! Welcome to the family," he says as he waltzes back into the room with a huge grin on his face. I smile back at him and once everyone finishes eating, we clean up our mess and decide to watch a movie. This time I'm seated between Taekwoon and Wonsik. Next to Wonsik is Hyuk, Hakyeon and JaeHwan are on the couch by Hyuk and Hongbin sits in the recliner by Taekwoon.
I feel extremely full and begin to feel sleepy. I try to stop myself from nodding off but the next thing I know, I'm waking up with my head on Taekwoon's shoulder. I jerk my head off and look at him with wide eyes. "I'm sorry," I say extremely embarrassed.
"It's okay," he replies simply.
"If you're tired, I can walk you home," Wonsik says.
"Oh.. Um no I'm okay," I say trying to recover from the embarrassment. I smile awkwardly at Wonsik and turn my attention back to the movie. It doesn't seem like I missed much so I must not have been asleep on Taekwoon for too long. I glance in his direction and find his gaze on me and it looks like there's a small smile on his face. I quickly look away and my mind is flooded with thoughts. "Was he really smiling at me? Was that just my imagination? It was probably my imagination right? Please let that have been my imagination." Once the movie is over it's about 3 o'clock and I decide I better head home before my mom starts going crazy.
"Well I guess I should get going," I announce.
"Aww no don't leave," Hakyeon says.
"It's been a lot of fun but I should get home before my mom goes berserk. Thank you guys for the food and entertainment, I enjoyed it," I say.
"It was fun. Come again soon okay," Hongbin says.
"See you around Rigi-ssi," Wonsik says.
"Bye," Taekwoon says softly.
I smile at the three of them and feel extremely warm inside. "Bye guys, I'll see you soon." I head toward the door and they all follow me. Hakyeon opens the door for me and I step outside.
"I'll walk you home," Hyuk says.
"Oh you don't have to," I say.
"I want to," he replies.
"Oh.. Okay. Bye everyone," I say.
"Bye Rigi!" they answer.
"Let's go," Hyuk says. "Ah Rigi, I was wondering if I could give you my phone number," he asks as we get to the door.
"Oh, um, sure," I say timidly.
"Great," he says. We exchange numbers, he smiles and says, "today was fun. I'll see you around. Bye Rigi."
"Bye Hyuk. Tell everyone thank you again for me."
"Will do."
I walk inside and run to my room before my mom can say anything. I sit on my bed and hug my knees as I think of everything that happened today. I feel embarrassed, happy and giddy all at the same time and I can feel myself blushing very deeply. I smile and let myself fall to the side like a lunatic. Despite my awkwardness, I feel strangely at home with them and can't wait to see them again.