It All Started With Ice Cream
Up on the rooftop... continued.
~Yoochun(Micky) POV~
Anna looked shocked that Junsu would offer. Her eyes got really big and her mouth formed a perfect O. I noticed what a beautiful shade of blue her eyes were, like the ocean on a clear day at Jeju.
“You guys really wouldn’t mind? I mean, I’m sure you have work or something more important to do.”
“There’s always time to help out a pretty lady,” Jaejoong said laying it on thick.
There she went blushing again and a beautiful smile stretched across her face all the way to her eyes. Then she started to bounce in place in excitement. Made me wonder how tough of a time she’d been having if just having someone to listen to her could make her so happy. Made my heart hurt for her to think about it.
I realized she was talking to the guys so I decided I should pay attention. Her accent was cute, a southern belle if I wasn’t mistaken. Wonder how she wound up here in Seoul?
~Anna POV~
These guys are too cute and willing to listen! I was really excited to have someone that was less than 5000 miles away to talk to. I better make sure they aren’t friends with the double dutch chocolate queen first.
“First off, what brings you guys to Star Promotions today? A meeting or to meet someone? A girlfriend or sister perhaps?” I didn’t think they knew her royal fudge brownie-ness judging by the clearly hip clothes they were wearing, she was a suit and tie kind of snob, but one could be her sibling. Stranger things have been known to happen.
The gorgeous one named Micky laughed again, and it sent a shiver down my spine. “No, no. We’re here for a meeting about an upcoming promotion, but we got here early and have the time to spare. So, if you really need an ear or three we are available.”
“Chinja?” I asked. They all nod and smile at me.
Sigh, these guys are like a dream come true. I gesture over to the side and they follow me to the seating area. Jae let out a whoop and pounced on the hammock chair and Junsu joined him. Micky and I take two of the plastic chairs facing them.
“This is a neat swing!” Jae says as we all settle down, making it rock back and forth to Junsu’s delight.
“I take it you didn’t know there were seats over here?” I asked.
“No, our manager said we could come up here so people would leave us alone and not stare.” Junsu said. I must have had an interesting look on my face because he went on to ask, “You’ve no clue who we are, do you?”
Oops, I did it again. I can feel another blush coming, these oppas have made me do this a lot this morning. I can never remember all the celebrities they have here and they’re all so gorgeous, especially these three. My team is always picking on me for not knowing who I’m makingposters and ad campaigns for.
Wait, if these three are here for a meeting I wonder if they could be for the tour promotions we’ve been working on. I decide to ask, what’s the worst that could happen they say no?
“Are you guys JYJ?”
“Yes, we are! How did you know? I was sure you didn’t recognize us.” Junsu said.
“I didn’t. But I know that they, I mean you, were coming for a meeting later and that there are three of you. Two of you even have names that start with J. So…” I look at Micky confused.
He laughs again and those tingles spread all over me once more. He has a gorgeous laugh that lights up his eyes like a Christmas tree. “My real name is Park Yoochun, but when I lived in the states I went my Micky.”
“Ah, now I understand. J-Y-J,” I say as I point to the respective oppa.
“Enough about us, tell us what caused that delicious sounding tirade earlier?” Micky asked me.
“Delicious?” The other two gave him a strange look.
I burst into laughter at their faces. “Yes, sorry to laugh. My momma would wash my mouth out with soap if I swore so I learned to use other words instead of the bad ones. I say ice cream for curse words when I get mad. Got me out of a lot of trouble as a kid because it usually made whomever I was yelling at laugh.”
The other two boys smiled and asked me to explain my dilemma.
“It’s like this. I moved to Korea 18 months ago as an EPIK teacher down in Busan. I fell in love with the country, especially the food, and decided I wanted to stay. So I began to look for a permanent job. I got hired on here at Star as a graphic designer about 5 months ago. I moved up to Seoul and fell in love with the city, I love the mix of traditional and modern you see everywhere. The first month of work was training and I thought I was really going to love this job. Then I got assigned to a team.” I heave another big sigh. “That’s when I met her royal French vanilla-ness.”
Junsu and Jae give a startled laugh as they heard my first sugary sweet curse in Korean, while Micky just smiles and motions for me to continue.
“Asyou can tell I’m not bad at speaking Korean, but not great either. I need people to go slowly and be patient with me. Thus they assigned me to that spumoni team,” another smile from the guys, “because most of them speak at least some English.”
“Nothing sounds horrible yet,” Micky remarked. Jae and Junsu nod their heads in agreement.
“Yes, well… it wasn’t at first until I started to notice some things. We are a team so we all contribute to the designs and campaigns assigned us. But I started to notice that things I designed or slogans I made up were being contributed directly to other people on my team. Usually to the pink bubblegum princess. When I asked, she said that everyone contributes, so it doesn’t matter who gets credit. But then I find out that they’ve gotten some cash bonuses for my work! And when I try to speak up in meetings they speak quickly in Korean so I can’t follow and I’m sure succeeding in making me look like an idiot.”
“That sucks. What brought on today’s 31 flavors?”
I laugh at Micky’s joke. It’s nice being able to laugh about all this, otherwise I might cry and these wonderful guys don’t need that drama. Then I sigh when I remember what happened this morning.
“For your tour campaign each of us on our team came up with a design concept including logo, slogan and poster. Whoever gets chosen will get a hefty bonus and a small one to the whole team if you guys decide to go with our company. We then picked the best, made suggestions and made the final deliverable for today’s meeting. Mine was chosen. But since my Korean isn’t great, pistachio almond breath will be giving the presentation. I gave her the Power Point presentation yesterday for her to go over and to be ready for today’s meeting. “
“Still not hearing anything bad, if we pick yours you’ll get a big bonus. In fact I can’t wait to see what you’ve designed for us!” Jae exclaimed.
“You’d think that wouldn’t you. But I went by the conference room this morning and there they were setting up. Salted caramel was going through the slides and I see that she’s listed herself as the designer for the whole campaign. I accused her of stealing my design and all she said was prove it. Then she laughed in my face and said, no one would be able to understand or believe me since I’ve shown no work so far in the company.”
I looked up and all three give me outraged looks.
“Aish! I want to beat the sugar-free rum raisin out of her and the rest of my blueberry bonanza team!”
~Yoochun(Micky) POV~
Aw, the poor girl. My heart was weeping for her. I feel really mad because it’s for comeback tour. I look at the boys and I can see they feel the same. But what can we do to help her out?
“Anyway you can prove it’s yours?” Jae asks.
“Well, I have my original sketches and the evolution of the design here, do you want to see?” Anna says.
We all gather around her sketch book and I’m blown away by her talent.If these are the sketches for our tour logo I can’t wait to see the finished product.
“Why not show these to your boss? Surely that will prove that it’s your design.”
“It would but I’m sure she’ll talk circles around me like she said. Besides the boss is her uncle and in his eyes she can do no wrong, so obviously I’d be the one lying.” Anna sighed again. “Oh well, thank you for listening to me, I feel much better. I have to get back to work.” She got up to leave. “Wish I had friends here in Seoul like you three who I could talk to all the time.” I hear her say as she walks away.
“Wait!” I yell. “Give me your business card, please.”
“Wae?”
“Because friends should stay in touch, right chingu?” I see Junsu and Jae nodding agreement. “ Besides since I speak English I want you to have someone local you can call in case you ever need help.” I tell her.
She gives me that smile again and hands me her card.
“I don’t expect anything from celebrities like y’all, but it’s a beautiful thought.” She walks back into the building.
I turn to the boys and say, “I think I’ve got a plan.” They both see the look on my face and theirs light up in delighted anticipation of whatever I’ve come up with. I gesture for them to huddle up and rub my hands in anticipation. “This is going to be fun.”
Anna looked shocked that Junsu would offer. Her eyes got really big and her mouth formed a perfect O. I noticed what a beautiful shade of blue her eyes were, like the ocean on a clear day at Jeju.
“You guys really wouldn’t mind? I mean, I’m sure you have work or something more important to do.”
“There’s always time to help out a pretty lady,” Jaejoong said laying it on thick.
There she went blushing again and a beautiful smile stretched across her face all the way to her eyes. Then she started to bounce in place in excitement. Made me wonder how tough of a time she’d been having if just having someone to listen to her could make her so happy. Made my heart hurt for her to think about it.
I realized she was talking to the guys so I decided I should pay attention. Her accent was cute, a southern belle if I wasn’t mistaken. Wonder how she wound up here in Seoul?
~Anna POV~
These guys are too cute and willing to listen! I was really excited to have someone that was less than 5000 miles away to talk to. I better make sure they aren’t friends with the double dutch chocolate queen first.
“First off, what brings you guys to Star Promotions today? A meeting or to meet someone? A girlfriend or sister perhaps?” I didn’t think they knew her royal fudge brownie-ness judging by the clearly hip clothes they were wearing, she was a suit and tie kind of snob, but one could be her sibling. Stranger things have been known to happen.
The gorgeous one named Micky laughed again, and it sent a shiver down my spine. “No, no. We’re here for a meeting about an upcoming promotion, but we got here early and have the time to spare. So, if you really need an ear or three we are available.”
“Chinja?” I asked. They all nod and smile at me.
Sigh, these guys are like a dream come true. I gesture over to the side and they follow me to the seating area. Jae let out a whoop and pounced on the hammock chair and Junsu joined him. Micky and I take two of the plastic chairs facing them.
“This is a neat swing!” Jae says as we all settle down, making it rock back and forth to Junsu’s delight.
“I take it you didn’t know there were seats over here?” I asked.
“No, our manager said we could come up here so people would leave us alone and not stare.” Junsu said. I must have had an interesting look on my face because he went on to ask, “You’ve no clue who we are, do you?”
Oops, I did it again. I can feel another blush coming, these oppas have made me do this a lot this morning. I can never remember all the celebrities they have here and they’re all so gorgeous, especially these three. My team is always picking on me for not knowing who I’m makingposters and ad campaigns for.
Wait, if these three are here for a meeting I wonder if they could be for the tour promotions we’ve been working on. I decide to ask, what’s the worst that could happen they say no?
“Are you guys JYJ?”
“Yes, we are! How did you know? I was sure you didn’t recognize us.” Junsu said.
“I didn’t. But I know that they, I mean you, were coming for a meeting later and that there are three of you. Two of you even have names that start with J. So…” I look at Micky confused.
He laughs again and those tingles spread all over me once more. He has a gorgeous laugh that lights up his eyes like a Christmas tree. “My real name is Park Yoochun, but when I lived in the states I went my Micky.”
“Ah, now I understand. J-Y-J,” I say as I point to the respective oppa.
“Enough about us, tell us what caused that delicious sounding tirade earlier?” Micky asked me.
“Delicious?” The other two gave him a strange look.
I burst into laughter at their faces. “Yes, sorry to laugh. My momma would wash my mouth out with soap if I swore so I learned to use other words instead of the bad ones. I say ice cream for curse words when I get mad. Got me out of a lot of trouble as a kid because it usually made whomever I was yelling at laugh.”
The other two boys smiled and asked me to explain my dilemma.
“It’s like this. I moved to Korea 18 months ago as an EPIK teacher down in Busan. I fell in love with the country, especially the food, and decided I wanted to stay. So I began to look for a permanent job. I got hired on here at Star as a graphic designer about 5 months ago. I moved up to Seoul and fell in love with the city, I love the mix of traditional and modern you see everywhere. The first month of work was training and I thought I was really going to love this job. Then I got assigned to a team.” I heave another big sigh. “That’s when I met her royal French vanilla-ness.”
Junsu and Jae give a startled laugh as they heard my first sugary sweet curse in Korean, while Micky just smiles and motions for me to continue.
“Asyou can tell I’m not bad at speaking Korean, but not great either. I need people to go slowly and be patient with me. Thus they assigned me to that spumoni team,” another smile from the guys, “because most of them speak at least some English.”
“Nothing sounds horrible yet,” Micky remarked. Jae and Junsu nod their heads in agreement.
“Yes, well… it wasn’t at first until I started to notice some things. We are a team so we all contribute to the designs and campaigns assigned us. But I started to notice that things I designed or slogans I made up were being contributed directly to other people on my team. Usually to the pink bubblegum princess. When I asked, she said that everyone contributes, so it doesn’t matter who gets credit. But then I find out that they’ve gotten some cash bonuses for my work! And when I try to speak up in meetings they speak quickly in Korean so I can’t follow and I’m sure succeeding in making me look like an idiot.”
“That sucks. What brought on today’s 31 flavors?”
I laugh at Micky’s joke. It’s nice being able to laugh about all this, otherwise I might cry and these wonderful guys don’t need that drama. Then I sigh when I remember what happened this morning.
“For your tour campaign each of us on our team came up with a design concept including logo, slogan and poster. Whoever gets chosen will get a hefty bonus and a small one to the whole team if you guys decide to go with our company. We then picked the best, made suggestions and made the final deliverable for today’s meeting. Mine was chosen. But since my Korean isn’t great, pistachio almond breath will be giving the presentation. I gave her the Power Point presentation yesterday for her to go over and to be ready for today’s meeting. “
“Still not hearing anything bad, if we pick yours you’ll get a big bonus. In fact I can’t wait to see what you’ve designed for us!” Jae exclaimed.
“You’d think that wouldn’t you. But I went by the conference room this morning and there they were setting up. Salted caramel was going through the slides and I see that she’s listed herself as the designer for the whole campaign. I accused her of stealing my design and all she said was prove it. Then she laughed in my face and said, no one would be able to understand or believe me since I’ve shown no work so far in the company.”
I looked up and all three give me outraged looks.
“Aish! I want to beat the sugar-free rum raisin out of her and the rest of my blueberry bonanza team!”
~Yoochun(Micky) POV~
Aw, the poor girl. My heart was weeping for her. I feel really mad because it’s for comeback tour. I look at the boys and I can see they feel the same. But what can we do to help her out?
“Anyway you can prove it’s yours?” Jae asks.
“Well, I have my original sketches and the evolution of the design here, do you want to see?” Anna says.
We all gather around her sketch book and I’m blown away by her talent.If these are the sketches for our tour logo I can’t wait to see the finished product.
“Why not show these to your boss? Surely that will prove that it’s your design.”
“It would but I’m sure she’ll talk circles around me like she said. Besides the boss is her uncle and in his eyes she can do no wrong, so obviously I’d be the one lying.” Anna sighed again. “Oh well, thank you for listening to me, I feel much better. I have to get back to work.” She got up to leave. “Wish I had friends here in Seoul like you three who I could talk to all the time.” I hear her say as she walks away.
“Wait!” I yell. “Give me your business card, please.”
“Wae?”
“Because friends should stay in touch, right chingu?” I see Junsu and Jae nodding agreement. “ Besides since I speak English I want you to have someone local you can call in case you ever need help.” I tell her.
She gives me that smile again and hands me her card.
“I don’t expect anything from celebrities like y’all, but it’s a beautiful thought.” She walks back into the building.
I turn to the boys and say, “I think I’ve got a plan.” They both see the look on my face and theirs light up in delighted anticipation of whatever I’ve come up with. I gesture for them to huddle up and rub my hands in anticipation. “This is going to be fun.”
Notes
Sorry this chapter was kind-of long but I couldn't see breaking it up easily. Hope you enjoyed it.
@nightsky
I know! I haven't been inspired about it lately so I wanted to end it rather than abandon it. I may go back and add more later if I feel inspired but right now I'm drawn to some other stories I'm working on. Keep your subscription, so if I do add on you'll be informed. Hopefully I can go back and make a better ending for these two.
4/17/14