“How is it this much?” I said, looking at the receipt. I had actually spent over 2 grand. There was the main course of lobster and a side of eel. I didn’t think it had costed that much.
“Sian, what if we get in trouble?” Jia asked, rubbing her swollen stomach. It was adorable, but Hainan’s was cuter.
“You look like you have a baby in there,” I said, poking Hainan’s stomach. She giggled afterwards.
“Don’t you think we spent too much?” Yoo-jin asked, looking down at her own stomach. Hers was swollen as well. Though compared to her chest, it wasn’t really that big.
“He gave it to me to use it. He’ll probably be happy knowing that we’re enjoying ourselves so much. He thinks of us as his daughters after all.”
At that, everyone nodded. I would find out later that blood came out of Jinwoo’s ears one more time the moment I said those words.
“Let’s go get ice cream,” Jia suggested. Everyone voiced their wholehearted agreement after that.
We walked into a nearby convenience store and bought a bunch of corn-flavored ice cream. We bought some for today, some for tomorrow, and some for the day after…in short, we bought enough to last us until the weekend.
“That’s 100,000 won.”
“Here you go,” I said, handing the card over. And just like that, we bought 100,000 won worth of ice cream and chips.
“Still, since they’re buy two, get one free, it’s quite a bargain.”
“Should we buy more then?”
“Nah. We have conscience. Let’s stop.”
“Okay.”
And with that, we went back to our dorm, our hands full of snacks.
***
When we returned, we sat in a circle in the living room. We each had corn ice cream in our hands with the other snacks and drinks piled in the middle.
“Oh, hey guys, we’re getting paid tomorrow,” I said.
Everyone nodded. Judging by the look on everyone’s faces, they were already well aware.
“Should we get a present for Mr. Park?” Jia suggested.
We all began to think.
“Let’s all chip in to buy him something,” Yoo-young said. Hmm…what could we buy him?
“A bike?”
“A smartphone?”
“A smart watch?”
“A mini fridge?”
“Cash?”
“A chair?”
“A sex doll?”
A sex doll? Who said that? We all looked at the culprit – it was Yoo-jin. Upon seeing everyone staring at her, she just shrugged.
“He might be lonely,” she pointed out.
“True.”
We all nodded in acknowledgement. He does live by himself after all. In a way, you can’t help but feel bad for him.
“Still, sex dolls aren’t really accepted here that much. Let’s get him a bamboo pillow. He can hug that,” I said.
Everyone agreed, but just then, Ji-hyun spoke up. The beloved daughter of a rich family. What sort of present would she suggest?
“Actually, guys.”
We all looked at her.
“I don’t think material goods will be enough. Mr. Park already has a lot of money. So rather than spending money, how about we make him something.”
“Oh?”
“Oooh~”
“That’s a good idea!”
We all gave Ji-hyun a thumbs up. But to be honest, I didn’t really think Jinwoo would like that sort of homemade present. The way I see it, the thing he likes most is money. I’m sure he’d just prefer us to give him money, but everyone else was already into full present-making mode.
“How about we fold origami roses? We can make a message with them. Something like ‘We love you, Mr. Park’.”
“Yeah!” Everyone exclaimed. Okay, that sounded like a decent idea. Though I still doubted Jinwoo would like it. Anyways, we bought some rose paper and began to fold them, but we realized we needed a lot more roses than we thought and by midnight, we decided to change the message.
Mr. Jinwoo Park, We Love You -> Mr. Jinwoo Park
After about thirty more minutes, we changed the message again
Mr. Jinwoo Park -> Mr. Park
And after another ten minutes, we shortened it one more time.
Mr. Park -> Mr. P. ♡
And after another five minutes, we changed the message just one last time.
Mr. P. ♡ → ♡♡
And finally after that, we went to bed.
***
It was around noon the next day. At lunchtime, the girls and I were right outside Jinwoo’s door.
Knock knock.
“Yes…come in…”
His voice sounded exhausted. It was completely different from yesterday. Was he up all night? I wonder what happened.
Anyways, I opened the door and the other members filed in after me.
“Hi, Mr. Park!” we all said.
“Oh?” Jinwoo looked at us, quite surprised. I approached him with his present.
“Mr. Park. We saw the amount we got. We really didn’t expect that much. Thank you so much.”
After giving a slight bow, I took out our present. It was the roses we had spent all night folding glued into a shape of a heart and then framed. It was full of our sincere…sincerity.
“What’s…this…?”
“Your present.”
“….”
Jinwoo looked rather less than pleased. His face was clearly asking, ‘You call this a present?’
“We stayed up all night to make it,” Jia said, using her cute voice. The other members followed suit.
“Mr. Park, thank you!”
“Oh…s-sure…t-thanks…”
After an awkward pause, Jinwoo finally took the gift. He stared at it. I’m sure this was different from the present he had been expecting.
“Do you like it?” I said with a smile.
Jinwoo didn’t answer. It seemed like his mind had gone blank.
“Mr. Park.”
“Huh…?”
“Do you like it?”
“O-oh…y-yeah. I do.”
But somehow his face didn’t match his words.
“You’re really bad at controlling your expression.”
“Huh? Oh. Haha. Hahaha. I really do like it. Thanks, guys.”
Well, that was slightly better, I guess.
“Mr. Park. Have you eaten lunch yet?” I asked.
“Uh…”
A look of apprehension came over Jinwoo’s face at my question. He looked rather afraid of me at the moment.
“Did. You. Have. Lunch?”
“Huh? U-uh. No. I-I didn’t,” Jinwoo said, sounding defeated.
“Then let’s have lunch together.”
“Oh, I-I’m not that hungry…”
So he didn’t want to eat with us, huh?”
“You’ll feel better once you eat out. Let’s go, Mr. Park. We haven’t all had lunch together in a while.”
“Uh…”
Jinwoo remained quiet, but in the end, I took his hand and simply dragged him out of the office. The man tried to get out of my grip, but his strength was nothing compared to mine, and in the end, we ended up at the nearby pizza restaurant.
***
Chatter chatter chatter…
These girls sure do talk a lot. It sounded like a bunch of chicks chirping about.
“What kind of sports are there at the Idol Games?” I asked, eating a slice of pizza.
“Soccer, basketball, Jokgu, archery, track, and swimming.”
“That’s a lot.”
“Yep,” Jinwoo answered with a nod. Then, he chugged down his coke. He really didn’t look so good today.
“Why do you look so exhausted?”
“The food costs went really high.”
“How much?”
“50 grand.”
***
The table grew silent.
Even the other members grew silent.
“Oh guys, it’s okay. Go ahead and eat,” Jinwoo said, forcing a smile onto his face.
It was like the girls had been waiting for him to say that, because they instantly turned back to their pizza slices. Well, they don’t seem too concerned. To be honest, neither was I.
“Is that a lot?”
“Spending 50 grand in one month…it has to be a record.”
“Mmmm.”
Now that I think about it, that’s probably true. There was one group called GOT and it was once reported that they had spent a total of 2 billion won within six months. That was considered the new record, but we spent 50 grand in just one month. At this rate, we’d spend a total of 3 billion in six months. I mentally apologized in advance to Jinwoo.
“I guess you’ll have to make a lot of money.”
“You guys will just have to work harder.”
“Oh.”
Well, I guess that’s how it works. I’ll have to try to reduce the amount of food I eat. Though I’m not sure if that’s possible…
“Well, anyways, that’s what happened. I was just really shocked. I saw you guys spending two grand just last night.”
“Yeah. We were trying to save.”
“….”
Jinwoo had no response.
“So which sports are we doing?” I said, quickly changing the subject.
“The girls do track, archery, and swimming.”
“Oh~”
Those were all the sports I was good at.
“Ladies Generation was last year’s champion, right?”
“Yep. They won in all three competitions.”
“I see. I’ll win them all this year.”
“Of course,” Jinwoo said with a nod.
Then he added, “You’re the captain and you’ll be competing in all three fields.”
“Okay. When we win, can we have a celebratory dinner?”
“….”
***
A few days then passed.
Before the Idols Games, we had a fansign event. It was held in front of a makeup store in Myeondong, and there were so many people. It wasn’t just the fans. There were reporters everywhere, taking pictures, and driving us crazy with their camera flashes.
“There’s a lot of people.”
There wasn’t enough room to move.
“Here, guys. Sit down in a row,” Hak-gyu said.
We sat down in a row behind the table set up for us. There were bodyguards on both sides of the table, ready to take action in case anything happened. Jinwoo was off to the side, staying out of the way and watching us with an incredibly satisfied look on his face.
“I’m so nervous,” Hainan whispered to me.
“What’s there to be nervous about? You just have to say hi and give them an autograph.”
“Still…”
“They’re your fans. They already love you, so just relax.”
“Okay,” Hainan said with a nod.
Hainan. Our resident Vietnamese eighteen-year old. The fact that she came from a foreign country and worked her butt off made her so endearing. That’s why she held a special place in my heart.
“We’re going to start the fansign soon, guys. It’ll be an hour. You guys went to the bathroom, right?”
“Yes.”
“Did you guys brush your teeth?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, but when you talk a lot, you can get thirsty, so make sure to drink your water, okay? Dehydration can give you bad breath and you don’t want that.”
“Yes, Sir,” we all answered with a nod. Soon, Hak-gyu started the line and the fans began to file in. They all stood in front of the member they wanted an autograph from and the line became really long.
“Wow.”
The line was endless. Most of the people in my line were female. As for the men…well, there was no point in looking for one. The other members had a lot of male fans, though.
“Hi, Sian,” a female fan greeted me. I gave her a big smile.
“Hello.”
“Can I shake your hand?” she asked, holding hers out. I grabbed it with both of mine. The fan bounced up and down, unable to control herself. So, I stood up and gave her a hug. She began to pant for air.
“Oh, no. We’ll end it here. Let me give you my autograph.”
After calming her down, I signed a piece of paper for her. I added ‘Always be happy~’ just beneath my name.
“Thank you, Sian! I’ll be your fan forever!”
“Thank you so much~” I said with a wave.
The next fan stepped up. This was a student with an incredibly sexy-looking face, but the moment she saw me, she blushed.
“Hi, Sian…”
She tentatively held out her hand and I shook it. Her entire face became red.
‘What’s this energy I’m sensing…?’
