Stay With Us

“I feel bad.” I say to Jimin as we are gathering my clothes from my room to move into his.

“Why is that?” He asks looking at me confused.

I hold up one of my speakers. “Suga just got me these and now I will never use them. You already have some in your room.”

“We’ll just switch them out. Those are better than the ones I have anyway.” He says starting to unplug them.

I take the stack of clothes setting on the bed taking them over to our room. When I walk back out I see Begae dragging my hamper that I had put clothes in down the hallway then stopping at me looking up wagging his tail.

I couldn’t help but laugh at him. I then realized how big he was starting to get. He was already five months old and weighing 62 Lbs. He was quite a bit bigger than average. He should only be about 50 Lbs. He was also done with his guard dog training which I was happy about. I didn’t hate taking him, I had just been worried he would get aggressive. But he was still a little ball of fluff.

I pick up the hamper taking it into the room before going to get more. Jimin brought over the speakers and started to install them after taking out his. We finally were done putting everything away close to six.

“I’m starving.” He says flopping down on the bed. “We forgot to eat lunch.” He then starts to laugh.

I go over lying next to him Begae close behind. “Well do you want to go to dinner? I kind of feel like going to a movie too.”

“Yeah let’s do that. We haven’t been to a movie for a while.” He gets up going to his closet to pick out clothes.

“And it was my idea so I get to pay!” I then do a mocking evil laugh at him as I run over to my dresser.

He looks at me disapprovingly. “Fine. Then I want McDonalds.”

I look over at him in disbelief. “What? You’re ridiculous!”

“Hey! If you are paying we aren’t going anywhere expensive.” He then puts on a light blue button down shirt.

“Fine.” I say with a mischievous grin which he did not notice before leaving the room to fix his hair.

I rush over to the mirror taking off my makeup and throwing my hair into a messy bun. I quickly picked out a pair of his sweatpants that were a little long on me and one of his plain white t-shirts putting them on. I slipped into my black flip flops then waited for him to come back into the room.

“Are you serious?” He asks irritated. “I pick McDonalds so we aren’t going anymore?”

“No we’re going.” I say smiling then walking out of the room.

“What?” He yells after me.

“If we are just going to McDonalds then why look nice?” I ask him.

“You are so frustrating.” He says coming up behind me carrying me back to our room.

“Oh now you don’t want to go to dinner and a movie?” I ask him as he throws me onto the bed.

He turns around going to my dresser then throwing clothes at me. “We’re going. Put this on.”

I pick up the clothes looking them over. “No. I like what I have on.” I say smiling at him.

“Fine!” He says now taking off his clothes throwing them onto the bed before going to his closet. He put on an oversized t-shirt and sweatpants with a black beanie. “Then we’re both going to look like shit.” He goes over wiping off his makeup in the mirror.

I couldn’t help but laugh at how immature we were both acting. We head to the front door Jimin grabbing his keys.

“Where the hell are you two going looking like that?” Rap Mon says seeing us as he comes out of the kitchen.

“We’re going on a date.” Jimin says matter of fact.

Rap Mon continues giving us weird looks but doesn’t say anymore as we walk out the door. We both get into the car still not saying a word to each other out of shear bullheadedness. As soon as Jimin pulls into the parking lot I go to get out of the car.

“Wait a second.” He says grabbing my hand. “Are we really about to do this? We look ridiculous.” He asks me laughing.

I couldn’t help but laugh too. “Why not? We have been moving clothes and some furniture all day. And we have looked worse in front of each other.”

He looked out the window to see how many people were out before opening his door. I grab my wallet getting out of the car with him. We walk in going up to order. We got a few strange looks but nothing too bad. I would rather have these looks then the ones we would get from fans at nice restaurants. I ordered our food and paid while Jimin went to get our drinks.

I took our tray over to a table waiting for him when I noticed something strange. The same man that was at the pizza place was here too a few tables from us. But he didn’t have any food or drink. He was looking through different papers on his table occasionally looking up at me.

“So what movie do you want to see?” Jimin asked sitting down then handing me my drink.

I turn my attention to him shifting in my seat. “I don’t know what sounds good?” I ask taking a few fries.

“There is that new action one.” He says taking a bite of his burger. He then takes out his phone checking the times. “It starts at 8:00 so we have plenty of time.”

“Works for me.” I say glancing back over to the guy to see if he is still looking at me. To my surprise he was gone.

We finish eating then head to the movie theater. Jimin seemed a little more comfortable with our choice of outfits by the time we got there.

I went to go find seats while he went to get drinks and popcorn. Even though we just ate neither of us was going to turn down popcorn. I found a couple seats toward the middle waiting for him. I took out my phone scrolling through Facebook to preoccupy my time.

“Ok. I have one Pepsi, Coke, and large popcorn with extra butter no salt.” Jimin says sitting down.

I put my phone away laughing at his introduction. “Thank you.” I say kissing his cheek.

The movie was pretty good. Could have used more of a story line though. Most of it was just explosions. We start making our way out of the theatre when I see the same man as before come out of our screening.

I grabbed a hold of Jimin’s arm as we walked to the car. Once inside I locked the doors quickly.

“What’s wrong?” He asks knowing something was off.

“That guy over there.” I say gesturing. “He has been everywhere we have been the last two days.”

He looks over at him. “He is probably just paparazzi.”

“He hasn’t had a camera though.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it’s nothing.” He says as we head back to the house.

I woke up the next morning early to get ready since Ji needed us there. Jimin wasn’t a fan of that part. I had told him I would just take the bus and after arguing that there was really no reason for him to go in that early he finally agreed.

I got on the bus finding an empty seat. Two stops later I see the same guy get onto the bus. I grab my phone calling Jimin.

“Hello.” He said groggily from being woken up.

I decided to speak in Korean to him in hopes the guy didn’t know it. “Hey that guy just got on the bus.”

“What guy?” He asks starting to wake up.

“The one from last night I told you about.”

“Don’t get off the bus.” He started sounding worried when he realized who it was. I could hear him getting out of bed getting ready. “I’m heading to the studio. If you don’t see me at the stop when you get there then stay where you are. You’re safer on the bus then getting off.”

“Ok.” I glance over at him seeing him looking at me. “Stay on the phone?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry. I’m leaving now.”

We stayed on the phone until the bus stopped at the studio. Jimin was standing there waiting for me so I gathered my bag getting off. He followed me off the bus but walked in the opposite direction as us.

“I’ll talk to my manager about it today.” Jimin says taking my bag to carry it for me. Before putting his arm around my waist leading me into the building.

I tried to not think about it through my work day but it kept creeping into my mind. I was so happy when Mr. Kwon said we were done for the day at 2:00.

“Hey Maranda, we’re going to get coffee. Want to come?” Hyosonn asked as we were changing.

“No. I’m gonna go see how long Jimin is going to be. I’m tired and just want to go home.” I explain to them picking up my bag.

“Ok. Well I guess we’ll see you tomorrow.” She says turning around to leave with the rest of the girls.

I walk over to the other practice room quietly sitting down outside the door so I didn’t bother them putting in my head phones. They had been practicing their choreography almost constantly the last couple weeks getting ready for the concert next month.

I was reading my book when I felt someone touch my shoulder. I look up to see Mrs. Lee one of the receptionists standing by me. I take out my earbud standing up to great her.

“Sorry to bother you Miss Kim.” She says to me. “A man came in with a message for you.” She then hands me the note.

I take it from her with my hand shaking. “What did he look like?”

“He was American. Dark hair.”

“Thank you.” I say bowing then running into the practice room. “Jimin, Tae. I’m sorry for interrupting.” I say to them.

They both notice the look on my face. “What’s wrong?” Jimin asks coming over to me.

I hold up the note. “He came in and left this for me.”

“What does it say?”

“I haven’t read it yet.” I say handing it to him.

He opens reading it to everyone. I hadn’t noticed they all had gathered. “Maranda, I’m sorry if I have made you nervous the last couple days. I wanted to make sure it was you before I contacted you. I have some information to tell you. If you could please meet me at Jung’s Café at 7:00 pm tomorrow. Bring anyone you would like if that will make you more comfortable.” He then looks up at me.

“Are you going?” Tae asks me.

“I don’t know. What is it that he would want to tell me?” I say taking the note back from Jimin. “What do you think?” I ask him.

“Honestly I have no idea.” Jimin says shaking his head. “If you want to go then we will go. If you don’t then that’s ok too.” He sees the troubled look on my face then comes over grabbing me in a hug. “Come on. Let’s go home and we can think about this more.”

I nod my head at him following him out of the practice room.

Notes