One Call Away

Rap Mon’s POV

“He sat down.” Jin says to me smiling over at them. “Can you here what they are saying?”

“They just did introductions. She didn’t catch his name yesterday.” I say taking a drink of my coffee.

“Is this a good idea?” Jin says turning to me.

“What do you mean?” I ask confused.

“We’re only going to be here a month. What happens if they actually like each other? He is going to break having to go back to Seoul. And we don’t know anything about her. What if she is a crazy fan?”

“I don’t think she is. She didn’t pay attention to us at all until yesterday. And it’s clear she comes in everyday anyway. They always have her drink waiting for her.”

“And Kookie?” He asks realizing I avoided the first question.

I sigh at him leaning back watching them. “We deal with it if it happens.”

“So what are you in America for?” She asks him.

“Oh, my friends and I had nothing to do for a month so we decided to go on a vacation.” Kookie stutters out.

“This boy needs more confidence.” I say to Jin. “He has done nothing but stutter and it’s making his accent worse.”

“We all know how he is with girls. The fact he is able to have a conversation with her is a miracle in itself.” He says rolling his eyes.

“So what do you do?” She asked him.

“Oh no.” I turn to Jin. “She asked what he does.” We both stare over waiting for his response.
He scratches the back of his head looking down nervously. “I. I just finished school. I’m still undecided on where to continue my studies.”

“He lied!” Jin said surprised.

“He didn’t lie.” I said reassuring. “He just didn’t say the whole truth.”

“You just finished school? So how old are you then?”

“I’m 20. I graduated last year. How old are you?”

“Don’t ask her that!” I yelled in a whisper.

“Well. He’s dead.” Jin says watching her reaction.

She had a shocked expression on her face from his bold question but seemed to shake it off. “23.” She says with a smile.

“She still smiled at him though. Maybe he didn’t mess up.” I say to him.

“So umm. What is it that you do?” He asks her.

“I’m a local artist. All the drawings in here I did.” She says smiling. “It doesn’t really pay much but I love doing it.”

We both continued watching them for the next half hour talking. He seemed to get a little more relaxed but still nervous. She had told him that she grew up here and that she surfs. She almost went to school for marine biology but decided to pursue art instead. They were both standing up to leave. She turned around to throw away her cup when I realized something.

“He didn’t ask for her number.” I said pulling out my phone.

“Get her number you idiot!” I text Kookie.

He noticed his phone go off checking the message then looking at me scared. Jin and I both waved our hands at him to shoo him into it.

He turned back to her stuttering. “So can I have your number?” He asked nervously.

She smiled up at him. “Sure!” She opened her sketch book ripping out a piece of paper writing it down.

“Thanks.” He said trying to hide his excitement. “I’ll. I’ll call you.”

They both say their good byes then Kookie came back over to us with the biggest smile on his face.

“She gave me her number.” He said sitting down smile still growing.

“See nothing to worry about.” I said patting his shoulder. “When are you going to call her?”

“Should I do it now?” He asks worried pulling out his phone.

“No!” I said taking it from him.

“Why? I like her. You’re supposed to call someone you like so they know you are interested.” He says looking at me confused.

“In America there is the three day rule.” I explain. “If you call her too soon you seem desperate.”

“So I can’t call her for three days?” He asks almost yelling.

“No.” I say laughing at him. “Just call her tonight and ask her to go out tomorrow night. That should be enough time.”

Jin then turns the conversation serious. “You lied to her.” He said crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“What do you mean?”

“You told her you just finished school and haven’t decided where to finish your studies. That’s a lie.”

Kookie looked down knowing he was right. “I don’t think she knows who I am. I don’t want her to freak out or think badly of me.”

“So you lied?” Jin says getting sterner with him.

“He didn’t completely lie.” I say interjecting. “He just left out being an idol. He can tell her when he’s ready.”

Jin huffs at both of us but when he saw how upset Kookie looked he backed off. “So where are you going to take her? And since you aren’t telling her who you are it has to be somewhere you won’t get noticed.”

“Which will be hard to do. This is the only place so far that no one has had any idea who we are.” I say to him.

“She likes fish. She thought about being a marine biologist. What if I take her to the aquarium? No that’s stupid. She has probably been there a dozen times.” He says changing his mind.

“But I would be willing to bet she has never been there alone.” Jin says with a smirk. “Or after hours.”

“What are you talking about?” He asks him confused.

“Let’s go find out how to make that happen.” Jin says pulling out the map to figure out where it was.

Kat’s POV

I was on my computer and listening to music on the TV when I hear the door fly open. I turn around to look and see Maranda fly across the room leaping over the back of the couch landing on it looking at me.

“The fuck?” I ask her confused by her excitement.

“He asked me for my number.” She says smiling at me.

“So you actually gave him your number?” I ask trying to sound normal. I had been hoping she
would. It is Kookie after all.

“I did!” She says still smiling. “I went over to him and thanked him for my pencil and then went to sit down. I drew him again. I know, no surprise there.” She says showing me. “He came over to talk to me so I asked him to sit down and we just talked. He was so nervous!” She says laughing. “There were a couple times I had to ask him to repeat something he said but it wasn’t too bad.”

“So are you going to go on a date with him?”

“Well I gave him my number so we’ll see if he calls.”

“So what’s his name?” I ask realizing she hadn’t said it yet so I was trying to sound interested.

“Jungkook.”

“Oh! So he is Korean.” I say sounding surprised.

“I guess. I just know he is Asian.” She says laughing.

Maranda’s POV

I was in the kitchen making dinner for Kat and I when I hear my phone start to go off. I didn’t recognize the number so I just silenced it and set it down. Kat then runs into the kitchen.

“Answer it!” She yells at me.

I jump from her yelling. “Why?” I asked her confused.

“It could be him!”

“I just gave him my number today. He isn’t going to call yet.” I say to her going back to cooking.

“Korea doesn’t have the three day rule! If they are interested they usually call or text as soon as they get it! One of his friends might have told him to wait until tonight!” She then reaches over answering and putting it on speaker and handing it to me.

“Hello?” I say looking at her still shocked from her rambling.

“Umm hi. It’s Jungkook.” He then says something in Korean to someone else. We both are listening to see what they say.

“Jenjang, neo imi manghaess-eo!”

Kat starts to slightly laugh. “He said he fucked up.” She whispers to me.

“Aww. See I told you he was a nervous guy.” I say whispering back to her.

We then hear more Korean before he starts talking to me again. “Umm. I wanted to know if you would go out. With, me? Tomorrow night?” He asks stuttering almost every word.

Kat then pushes me whispering yes at me. “Yeah. It sounds like fun.” I say pushing her away from me.

“Great!” He says with a weird squeak. “I’ll, umm, pick you up at nine.”

“Ok. I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye.”

“Bye.”

I hang up the phone turning to Kat. It then hits me I have no idea what to wear. “Oh my God! He didn’t say what we were doing!” I say worried. “How do I know what to wear?”

“Calm down! You have plenty to wear.” She says waving her hand at me.

“But what is the right thing?” I ask running to my room. I start throwing my clothes everywhere looking through all of it. “I have nothing!” I yell looking at the now scattered clothes all over my room.

“Calm down Satan!” She says to me. “We will find something that will be appropriate for any date.” She then starts picking up the clothes looking at them.

A burned dinner, take out pizza, and three hours later, we had finally found something for me to wear. We had decided on a red sundress, white open sweater, and black stilettos.

“Are you sure about the red dress? It’s kind of dark.” I ask her looking myself over in the mirror.

“He will love it Maranda. Trust me.” She says smiling then grabbing another piece of pizza.
I take it off hanging it up so it doesn’t get messed up then put the rest of my clothes away.

Notes