Stay With Us

I wake up early the next day to get ready. We all had to be at the studio early to go over the new choreography so the boys could move on to their other responsibilities. None of the boys were ready yet so I was sitting on the couch waiting for them.

“I hate Jimin.” Suga says sitting next to me. “And you for that matter.”

“Why?” I ask laughing.

He leans over whispering to me. “If he wouldn’t have gotten jealous over that guy I would still be asleep.”

I laughed harder at that. “I’m sorry. To his defense the guy is a douche.”

“Who is a douche?” Tae asks walking in.

“My dance partner. That’s why Jimin called to have you guys learning with us. Jimin was meeting me for lunch yesterday and the guy was hitting on me.”

I see the anger in his eyes start to grow. “He will be replaced soon.” He says in a tone that didn’t fit the look in his eyes.

“You guys are ridiculous.” The rest of the boys walk in and Jin grabs the keys to the van. We all pile in and head to the studio.

The other girls were already there waiting for us. “Hey Maranda.” Hyosonn greeted.

“Hey! How was coffee yesterday?” I asked walking to the other room to change.

“Good. Wished you would have come. We could have gotten to know you better.” She sits down on the floor next to me while I get dressed.

“I know I’m sorry. So do you know what we are doing yet?”

“Well we each have to pick a boy.” I hear Jiyeon say walking in with the rest of the girls.

“Maranda do you want V since he is your cousin? Or would that be weird?” Hyosonn says to me.

I realize this is my opportunity to put dibs on Jimin. “Yeah that might be weird. I’ll have Jimin.”

“I’ll take V then!” Hyosonn says excitedly. “He is just so cute!” We all laugh at her excitement.

After the other girls picked their boy we walked back out of the dressing room. Jiyeon had told us we shouldn’t tell the boys who we picked to surprise them so we stayed together. Tae and Jimin seemed confused as to why I didn’t walk back over with them.

“Alright ladies.” Mr. Kwon says coming out of his office. “We are going to have the guys start the beginning routine then you are all going to go over to the one you picked. Which is who by the way?”

“We decided to keep that a surprise Sir.” Jiyeon says to him.
“Keep them on their toes. I like it!” He then goes over to the IPod and the boys get in their spots to start. The music starts and the boys start dancing. “Cue girls!” We all walk over putting one hand on the guys face covering their eyes then turning them around with the other hand revealing ourselves. Jimin looked relived it was me.

“Cut!” Mr. Kwon says turning off the music. “Whose Idea was the hands?” He asks us.

“Mine sir.” I say nervously.

“I like it. Keep it.” He then goes over everything we are going to be doing for this song. I really was happy I didn’t end up with Tae. There is a lot of contact and it would have been so weird being with him. On the other hand though it meant I was doing all of this with Jimin.

We were doing very intimate movements with each other that I hadn’t ever done with anyone else. I tried to not seem nervous about some of them but I could tell Jimin knew. This was a very adult song I began to realize. Once Kookie turned legal I think Rap Mon and the choreographers said fuck it.

We went over the dance about twenty times before Mr. Kwon sent the girls home and the guys on lunch. I went to change with the other girls.

“This is so much fun!” Bora said once the door was shut. “Suga was not messing around out there!”

“Poor Jin.” Eunah chimed in. “He is having so much trouble with the steps.”

“Well he isn’t a dancer we all know that.” Jiyeon said to her. “Rap Mon is getting the steps but his hands are everywhere.”

“J-Hope I think is moving his hips more than I am.” Misook said laughing. “Aejung, how is Kookie doing? He looked so scared when he turned around and saw you.”

“Ugh! I hope he gets used to me soon! He is a really good dancer usually but he is so scared to touch me!”

“How do you think I feel living with them?” I say laughing. “Kookie has only said one sentence the whole time with me in the room.”

“Hey we should go get lunch!” Hyosonn said. “We’re done today anyway.”

All the girls agreed. “Maranda you in?” Jiyeon asked me.

“Yeah. Let me go tell the boys.”

“Ok and I’ll take you home. I have a car.”

“Ok!” I say excited. I grab my bag and run over to them. “Hey Tae. The girls are going to go get lunch. Can I go? Jiyeon has a car so she said she would take me home.”

“I don’t want you at the house by yourself.” He says starting to object.

“Please. They can bring me back here then.”

“Oh just let her go V. She is making friends.” Jin says to him. He then turns to me. “Go have fun. We will see you back at the house.” He then hands me a house key.

“Thanks Jin. I’ll see you guys tonight.” I felt bad not saying anything to Jimin but I didn’t know how to without giving anything away. And I was still a little embarrassed about the dance. I ran over to join the girls leaving to get lunch.

We all piled into Jiyeon’s car deciding on a café down the street. I feel my phone vibrate and I open the message. It was from Jimin.

“Bye? I guess.”

“Sorry. I didn’t know how to say bye to you without being obvious.”

“Who is that?” Hyosonn asks looking over my shoulder.

“Just Tae.” I say lying hoping she didn’t see who it really was.

“He’s really protective over you. I heard he was the one that suggested we learn with the boys instead of our partners because Minhyuk hit on you.”

“No that was Jimin actually. Tae just found out about that this morning.” I say rolling my eyes. “It really is stupid. They act like because I’m the same age as Kookie I need to be protected.”

The girls start to laugh. “I remember when I first started out. I had a partner that was a total ass.” Jiyeon said. “He actually tried to get me to sleep with him so our dancing would have more chemistry.” We all laughed at that one.

“The only thing sex with your partner does is takes away the tension. It doesn’t add chemistry.” Hyosonn said.

“So you have before?” Bora asked her.

“Yeah! Me and Yeongjin do it all the time.” She says laughing.

“I don’t think I could ever do that.” Bora said to us.

“Oh we have all tried it.” Jiyeon said with the other girl’s agreement.

“Maranda have you?” Bora asked me noticing I was quiet for this conversation.

“Umm.”

“You have haven’t you!”

“No actually. I haven’t with anyone.” I admit to them.

“Really?” Hyosonn asked me. “Ever?”

“No.” I say laughing nervously. “I was always busy with school and dance. I didn’t ever date anyone long enough.” I see the looks I’m getting from the girls. “Yah! I’m only 19 back in America. It’s not like I’m 50.” I say laughing.

They all start to laugh too. We end the conversation there and start on more normal subjects. After we finish eating Jiyeon takes us all home me being last.

“Maranda, I’m sorry if the conversation was awkward at the café.”

“It’s ok. I’m not embarrassed by it.”

“Well if it helps. I’m very happy you turned down Minhyuk. Most girls don’t.”

“It wasn’t that hard.”

“Don’t rush it.” She says pulling up to the house. “I gave it up the first chance I got and never looked back. It will be so much better if you are with someone you love.”

I get out of the car. “Thanks Jiyeon. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I turn walking into what I expect to be an empty house. To my surprise Jimin is asleep on the couch. I go up to him pinching his nose closed to wake him up.

He then looks up at me. “Hey.”

“What are you doing home?”

“Got done early.” He then reaches his arms up pulling me down to lay on the couch with him. I put my head on his chest listening to his heart beat.

“Jimin. I need to tell you something.”

He hums a response to me.

“Umm. I was really nervous today and there is a pretty big reason why.”

“What’s that?” He asks me sounding concerned now.

“I, haven’t ever. Umm. Been with someone.” I say trying to avoid the word.

He looks down at me confused. “What do you mean you’ve.” He then cuts himself off realizing what I meant. “Oh!” He then puts his head back down. “Well that makes since then.” He says thinking to himself.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask laughing and looking up at him.

“Well you kept getting nervous. And it didn’t make since why cause all the girls were doing the same thing.”

“Yeah. That’s why.”

“Doesn’t bother me.” He says closing his eyes again.

“It doesn’t?”

“No. Just let me know if you want me to change that fact about you.” He says with a playful smile.

I lightly hit his chest laughing. He laughs too and we both start to fall asleep. We are abruptly woken up by someone screaming in a very high pitch. I jump off of Jimin who then jumps off the couch seeing J-Hope standing at the door.

“What are you doing?” He yells at us.

“Dude calm down!” Jimin says to him. So he will stop yelling.

“V is going to kill you!” He says to Jimin.

“Tae isn’t going to find out yet.” I say calmly to him.

“Like he ain’t! If you two keep being idiots it’s only a matter of seconds! What would you have done if I was V?”

“J-Hope stope yelling.” Jimin says to him trying to calm him down.

“Please don’t tell Tae.” I beg him. “He will send me back to the states if he finds out.”

“I’m not going to tell him. But one of you needs to before he walks in to see you guys together.” He then thinks for a second. “Who else knows about this?”

“Suga kind of caught us.” Jimin says.

“Y’all are just careless.” He says walking out of the room.

I turn to Jimin. “That was close. J-Hope is right. What would we have done if that was Tae?”

He comes over sitting on the couch with me. “I don’t know.” He starts brushing back his hair.

“Maybe he won’t send me back.” I say thinking it over.

“I don’t want to take that chance. Do you?”

“No but I also don’t want him to just walk in and see us.”

“I know.” We then here J-Hope stomp back into the room.

“And another thing! How could you not tell me! I am your guys HOPE!” He then storms back out.

Notes