Earphone Buddies | J.J.K (Complete)

July (ep 38)

^^ remember when Jin's hair was like that. Hi WWH!

It was hard for the first week or two. The boys were always busy and the time zone difference certainly didn't help. I was already tired of their tiny amount of free time, most of which was spent sleeping or doing V-Live. True to my word, I did watch every single one and before long, my finger was sore from pushing the heart button. I knew that in all reality, I didn't actually need to press it, but it felt like a little kiss from me to Kookie every time.

So I kept hitting my phone. It actually got to the point where Kat asked me what had made me mad at my phone. I had looked up at her and replied, "I'm not mad. I'm love punching the heart button." She, of course, also missed her Yoongles, but she was much better at masking it and called him in the middle of the night quite often. Once I had walked out of my room at 3 AM to pee and had found her still talking to him, literally holding her eyelids up with her fingertips to keep them from closing. She acted like a zombie the next day.

I found myself working harder than ever at JYP, coming early to review what I wanted to teach that day and leaving as late as they would allow me to so that I could continue working with my idols and planning what I wanted to do next. I lived for four things: my Kat and Taytem, my job, my Kookie, and food.

Because food is literally necessary for existence and also because it makes me happy.

So yes.

I started working with more groups at JYP, like 2PM, occasionally with individual members of Stray Kids, Day6, and a few members of Got7. Having gotten into K-Pop through BTS, I was always surprised when I would be working with a group and they knew a word I had deemed 'difficult' or something similar. JYP nation, I surmised, knew more English collectively than I had given them credit for. The most memorable moment for me had been when I was working with Yeji and she had told me (in English) that she was "very grateful for all that you have done for me... and my members. You are... incredibly kind and patient with us and I wanted to say thank you." Sure, she had paused a few times on some of her words, but people do that even just speaking in Korean, and she also pronounced 'patient' like 'pa-chent', but she had said it so beautifully and not to mention using the word 'incredibly', which was one of my 'difficult words.'

I was also working with Wonpil of Day6 once when Seungmin (Stray Kids) had walked in for our scheduled class. I had gone over my time with Wonpil, which we apologized for profusely. Seungmin didn't seem to mind though, he just sort of stood there as Wonpil slipped past him. We learned superlatives that day, and Seungmin excelled in every single one. To quote him, "Day6 is the best." I had a huge smile on my face the rest of the day.

I loved working with all of the groups, although for different reasons. Stray Kids were incredibly funny and also already knew a decent amount of English thanks to Chan and Felix. Day6 also knew a nice amount of English, and although I rarely met with them due to that, every time I did, they worked tirelessly and patiently to understand the lesson. Twice and ITZY always made me laugh and one of my favorite exercises with them was to ask them to tell me their 'TMI' in English instead of Korean. (Korean TMI is information you don't necessarily need to know but might want to know, specifically about an idol.) It encouraged them to use words they might not use in an interview, but rather to connect with their fans in V-Lives and stuff. It was always precious when they came to me the next day and told me about the new word they had used in their Lives and how happy the fans had been.

Hyunjin of Stray Kids in particular came to me for help with his 'Counseling Center' Lives. He always tried to help International fans as well, which I had found amazing when I first started stanning their group. Even now, I admired his drive and dedication to his work. I helped him learn new words, how to use them, and helped with pronunciation. His biggest roadblock was that he forgot words very quickly and found it hard to string them together in the moment. We used flashcards sometimes, and other times I came up with a fake situation or borrowed one from one of his old Lives and asked him to answer it like he would in a V-Live.