One Call Away

Kookie’s POV

The three of us made our way to the Aquarium hoping there was something we could do to have a private tour. We were recognized almost instantly when we walked in by the older man that was running the ticket booth.

“Ah! Welcome BTS!” He said with a large smile.

“Hello, Sir.” Rap Mon said as the three of us bowed. “We were wondering. Is there a manager or owner we would be able to speak too? We had a somewhat odd request.” He says politely.

“Well you boys are in luck. I am that person.” He says with a smaller smile before becoming serious. “Sadie, come take over for me.” He asks a girl from the back.

“Of course, Mr. Roberts.” She says walking over.

“Come, we’ll talk in my office.” He says coming out of the small room.

We fallow him to the top floor of the building in silence. Once we were in the office he sat at the desk turning to us. “So what is it I can do for you boys?”

I cleared my throat. “Well Sir. I was wondering if there was any way I would be able to be in the building after hours.” I start. “There is a girl that I am interested in but she doesn’t know who I am. I’m worried if I do a normal date then she will find out. I can try to make anything you want happen for this.”

“Why wouldn’t you want her to know?” He asks surprised.

I nervously laugh. “I am worried it will scare her off.”

“Well, I’m sure we can arrange something.” He says getting out a calendar. “When did you want to do this?”

“Whenever it’s convenient for you.”

“Cleaning staff stays late tomorrow anyway. Does that work?”

“Yes Sir!” I say getting a little over excited.

He laughed at my reaction then got out another calendar. “Do you just want to be able to walk around or are there any of the other attractions you wish to do?”

“I’m sorry I don’t know what all there is. It’s the first time I have been here myself.” I admit.

“Well then boys sit down. Let’s fully go over this.” He says pointing to the chairs in front of the desk. “Tell me what you do know about her and we will get a full date set up.”

After talking with him for about two hours we finally had a game plan. I was surprised when he said all he wanted in return was a picture with us and a few autographs for his granddaughters. But we didn’t argue.

I then realized I had nothing to wear. I didn’t pack for a date. The three of us found a mall on the way back to the hotel. I shifted through everything in the stores not finding anything I thought would work.

“Kookie, calm down.” Jin said grabbing my arm after I threw down the twentieth shirt in the last five minutes. “We’re going to find something.”

“Yeah. Don’t worry.” Rap Mon says going through more clothes. “I’m sure she isn’t going to care what you have on. She doesn’t really seem like the type to care about those kinds of things. After all she has been in just a t-shirt and jeans each time you have seen her.”

“What is that supposed to mean? What’s wrong with how she was dressed?” I shoot back at him.

“My point exactly.” He says glancing up at me. “If you don’t care how she is dressed then what makes you think she is going to care how you are?” He asks handing me a white button down. “Now go try this on.”

I take the shirt from him going into a dressing room. I come back out showing them. “Is it too plain?” I ask them going to look in the mirror.

“I think it looks good.” Jin says coming over fixing the collar. “Let’s pick out some pants to go with it before we make any harsh decisions about it.”

I change out of the shirt before going to look through pants with them.

“Are we thinking jeans or dress pants?” Jin asks Rap Mon as I walk up behind them.

“It’s a plain white shirt so we could do either one.” He says shrugging.

“Alright. You look at jeans, I’ll look at slacks.”

“What do I look for?” I ask them.

“Go pick out a tie.” Rap Mon says pointing to a table.

I shift through all of the options. I wasn’t sure what all they were going to put me in so I got a few options. Red, black, blue. Basically every color option they had. I walk back over to see they both had about four pairs each for me to try.

I try all of them on with the shirt switching the ties. After two more meltdowns on my part we finally picked the white button down shirt, black slacks, and a red tie. We all decided it was missing something and started looking for jackets.

“Leather is always nice.” Rap Mon says handing me one.

“Is that too flashy though?” Jin asks skeptically.

“No. It gets cold in those buildings. These stay warm.” He then turns to me. “That isn’t for you to keep warm it’s to give it to her if she gets cold.”

“I know what it’s for.” I say grabbing it trying it on. “I like it.” I say looking in the mirror next to us.

“Alright!” Jin cheers. “We’re done shopping.”

We get back to the hotel about seven. I had my phone in my hand and was going over what to say with them.

“And don’t freak out! If you freak out you’re going to fuck up.” Rap Mon says to me.

“I know. I won’t.” I take the number out of my pocket dialing it. “What if I fuck up?” I say putting the phone down.

“Then you recover.” Jin says picking the phone back up handing it to me.

I press call after I finished dialing the number putting it on speaker. They both sat on either side of me to listen. It seemed like it rang for hours.

“Hello?” She finally answered.

“Umm hi. It’s Jungkook.” I then realize I don’t remember what to say so I turned to Rap Mon.

“Naneun mwolago mal halkka?” (What do I say?)

He looks at me in disbelief. “Jenjang, neo imi manghaess-eo!” (Damn it you already fucked up!) He says somewhat upset.

I just give him a pleading look still not sure what to do and now unsure of how to fix it.

“Uliga gyehoeg han geoscheoleom geunyeoege mul-eobwa.” (Just ask her out like we planned.) He says reassuringly.

I turn my attention back to her. “Umm. I wanted to know if you would go out. With, me? Tomorrow night?” I stuttered out knowing I probably sounded like an idiot.

We could hear someone whispering to her on the other side of the phone but couldn’t tell what she was saying. “Yeah. It sounds like fun.” She finally says.

“Great!” I say excitedly. “I’ll, umm, pick you up at nine.” I said knowing Jin would let me take the rental car.

“Ok. I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye.”

“Bye.” I hung up the phone jumping up not being able to contain my excitement. “She said yes!” I yelled dancing. God himself wouldn’t be able to get the smile off my face. “I can take the car right?” I asked Jin.

“Of course.” He said laughing at me.

I couldn’t sleep at all that night. Normally Rap Mon’s snoring didn’t bother me but everything was waking me up.

I just stayed in the hotel room that day going over everything in my head to make sure I was ready. I took a rather long shower to make sure I smelled nice. After getting dressed I stood in front of the mirror trying to decide which cologne to use and how to do my hair. At 8:30 I was ready and grabbed the keys to leave.

Maranda’s POV

I finished getting ready walking into the living room to show Kat. “You’re sure this dress isn’t too dark?” I asked her.

“It’s perfect.” She says getting irritated with me. “How is he picking you up?”

“I’m assuming either they rented a car or he is getting us a taxi.” I say putting on my earrings. I then hear a knock on the door. I walk over answering it. I heard him mumbling in Korean to himself. He turned around when he heard the door open.

“Hey.” He stutters out with a nervous smile.

“Hi. Come in. I’m almost ready.” I tell him moving out of the way. “This is my roommate Kat. Kat, this is Jungkook.” I introduce before going to my room to get my purse.

Kat’s POV

I look over the couch after Maranda introduced us as she walks to her room. I was right. It’s him. I get up going over to shake his hand.

“Good to meet you. Kookie.” He had the most shocked and defeated look on his face. “Don’t worry. Maranda has no idea.” I say looking over my shoulder to make sure she wasn’t back yet. “Your secret is safe with me.”

He starts to get a relieved look on his face. “It’s good to meet you Kat.” He breathes out.

Maranda then walks back into the room. “You ready?” She asked fixing her dress.

“Yeah.” He says nervously walking over to get the door for her.

Maranda’s POV

“So do I get to know where we are going?” I ask once we are in the car.

“It’s a bit of a surprise.” He says with a smile.

We pull up in front of the aquarium and I give him a questioning look. “Don’t they close at eight?” I asked him.

“They do.” He says turning off the car then quickly getting out to get my door. He helps me out of the car walking me up to the door.

“What are we doing? Breaking and entering?” I ask laughing.

He laughs at my pathetic joke. “No just entering.” He says with a smile holding the door for me.
Once we walk in the lights turn off and the blue lights from the tanks turn on. I gasped at how beautiful everything looked. I looked up at him smiling. It was hard to tell from how dark it was but I was pretty sure he was blushing.

“Do you like it?” He asked nervously.

“I love it.” I said taking his hand. I could tell how nervous he was from his sweaty palms but it didn’t bother me.

We walked around looking at the different fish. I was telling him the information I knew about them while he mostly just listened with a smile on his face.

“I’m sorry. I have been talking a lot.” I say nervously.

“I like listening to you talk.” He says smiling bigger.

We then walk up to a door that says Employees Only in big bold letter. He opened the door leading me in. I wasn’t sure if we should but he seemed to know what he was doing. Inside there was the opening to a tank with a walkway across it.

He led me to the edge of the walkway sitting down. “Take off your shoes.” He says taking off his then rolling up his pants.

I do as instructed setting them next to me. We both put our feet in the water and he takes his hand ruffling the surface. I then see something jump up scaring me which made me grab his arm hiding my face.

We both start to laugh at my reaction. I then hear squeals joining in as if it’s laughing too. I turn to see two dolphins sticking their heads up at us.

“Oh my God!” I exclaim surprised. I reach down touching one of them. I hadn’t ever been this close to one. I was surprised at how rubbery it felt.

It then turns onto its back for me to rub its stomach. We stayed there watching them swim around and come up to be pet for about an hour.

“This is amazing. Thank you.” I say smiling up at him.

“I’m glad you are enjoying yourself.” He says with another blush betraying him.

“I am.” I say leaning over putting my head on his shoulder.

“I have one more surprise.” He says reaching over grabbing a towel I hadn’t noticed then handing it to me before taking the other one to dry himself off.

He fixes his pants then putting on his shoes before getting up to help me stand. He kept one of his hands in mine as he led us to the next part of the building.

We walk into the food court and I see a table set with lit candles and a flower in the middle. He takes me over to it pulling out my chair for me.

“Ok. I have to know.” I start once he sits down. “How did you do all of this?” I ask with a smile.

“I was able to use some connections.” He says nervously looking at his hands.

“Well you have some amazing connections.” I say smiling not wanting to pry.

A waiter then walks over filling our water glasses and putting a basket of breadsticks on the table.

“I hope you like dinner. I wasn’t sure what to pick.” He says nervously blushing.

“I am sure I am going to love it just like everything else tonight.” I say reaching out to take his hand. He entangles his long fingers in mine running his thumb across my hand. This time I blushed at him shyly covering my face with my free hand.

He seemed to forget his nervousness for a moment and took my hand away from my face. “You look amazing tonight. I didn’t tell you that soon enough.” He says with a smile.

The waiter then comes back over interrupting our moment to bring the food Jungkook had picked for us. I got very excited when I saw it was authentic Italian pizza.

“I love pizza!” I couldn’t contain my excitement at all. “My family is very Italian. Most families have ham for Christmas celebrations but we always have homemade pizza for Christmas Eve and then homemade raviolis for Christmas day. I want to go to Italy so bad!” I then realized I was rambling and stopped talking looking down embarrassed at myself.

“Why did you stop talking?” He asks confused trying to catch my gaze.

“I was rambling.” I say laughing slightly.

“I like your rambling.” He says laughing at me. “So what can I get you to ramble about?” He asks mostly to himself making me laugh fully. “Oh my god your laugh!” He says dying from
laughter himself.

“Shut up!” I jokingly yell. “I know it’s bad.”

“It’s not bad!” He defends. “It’s funny. You have one of those laughs you can’t help but join.”

“I sound like a witch and a hyena crossbreed!”

“It’s perfect.” He says laughing harder.

We both calm down and start to eat the pizza before it got cold.

“So what music do you listen to?” He asks me between bites.

“I pretty much like everything.” I say shrugging. “Lots of rap, country, anything from the 1990’s.”

“Do you listen to Kpop then?” He asks seeming almost nervous at the question.

“A little bit but not much. I like Big Bang. But that’s the only band that I know. I have a playlist on Pandora for them so I hear other groups I just don’t know who they are or anything.”

“Have you ever heard of BTS?” He asks me sounding more nervous.

I think over his question trying to remember them. “I’m not sure. That’s a Kat question.” I say shrugging again taking a bite of pizza. “She eat sleeps and breathes anything from Asian culture.” I say laughing.

He dropped the topic there. We went back to talking about nonsense as we finished eating. He took me home after dinner walking me to my door.

“I had a really great time tonight.” I say turning to face him.

“I did too.” He said smiling while looking at the ground. “Can I take you out again?” He then slowly glances at me to see my reaction.

“Of course you can.” I say giving him a huge smile. He brushes a piece of my hair from my face with his fingers lingering on my neck. I put one of my hands on his shoulder slowly pulling myself up to him. He catches my intentions and bends his head down lightly kissing me.

“Goodnight.” He says when he breaks away with our lips still almost touching.

“Goodnight.” I say almost breathless. I slowly turn opening the door walking in the house.

Notes