Every Time, It's Still You [TaeHyung]

"Tae Oppa"

Recap:
"Stupid" He said in Korean.
"Huh?" I replied.
He laughed it off and said "come on! Let's go! I'll drop you off at your house. It's too late for a pretty girl like you to be out on her own."
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We walked out of the building and he asked: "where do you live?"
"Actually, right now, I'm living in BigHit." I replied.
"What? You're living in BigHit?" With a surprised look on his face.

"You mean the trainee dorms? Why are you living there?" He asked.
"I came from the US to become a singer! Apparently the CEO at BigHit liked my voice!"

"Haha! How old are you? Am I with an underaged girl right now?"
"Hah what? No! I'm 26 dude!" I replied, a bit annoyed. Even when I was in college, my relatives used to ask me what grade of high school I was in.

"You're 26?? You don't look 26! I thought you were like 20 or 21ish" he was surprised again.

"Well, TaeHyung-sshi, how old are you exactly?"

"I'm... umm uhhh..." he started counting on his fingers. "... woah.. I'm 30!"
I laughed at the fact that he didn't even know his own age.
"How come you don't know how old you are?" I asked.
"Well, I just... I haven't celebrated it in a long time. I'm usually working on my birthday so I forget."

"Aww.. that's kind of sad.." I replied. "When is your birthday?"

"December 30th" he replied.
"Oh! It's in a few months! This year, let's celebrate it together! Remember to take the day off this year! I'll make it the best birthday EVER!!"

"Haha! Sure I'll try to take the day off." He said laughing at my excitement.
"Oh, we're here," he said looking up at the sign in front of the building.

"Yep! Thank you for walking me all the way here!" I said and bowed. For some reason, I didn't want to leave yet. I wanted to talk to him more, and laugh with him more. I just wanted to be with him... WAIT WHAT AM I THINKING?? This is a stranger I accidentally met JUST TODAY!!

But still...

"Hey, can I have your number?" He asked.
"Ah! Sure! Of course! How else would we meet again?" I replied. I tried to open my purse but that's when I realized: WE WERE STILL HOLDING HANDS! AHHHHH!!

I pulled my hand back. "Ah! I'm so sorry!" I panicked.
A mischievous smile took over his face again as he said: "I guess you just didn't want to let me go."

I felt my face get warm again.. "n-no it's not like that" I stuttered. But in a way... it was like that..
TaeHyung laughed.
He took the phone I handed him and I took his. I put my phone number into his phone and set it as "🌕MoonByul 🌕".

I handed it back to him and checked what he had set his name as. " Tae-Oppa" it read, in English.

"Tae-Oppa? Why Tae-Oppa?" I asked him.
He laughed every time I said it.
"Well, since I'm TaeHyung to others, since you're a girl, you can call me Tae-Oppa."

Oh gosh... was that a pun? My face probably scrunched up as I cringed.

"Ew what..?" I replied.
"Hehe. Don't you dare change it!" He said.
"It's already 4 am! Go inside and sleep!" He said pushing me gently to the entrance.

"Okay, I'll text you so we can meet again!" I said.
"Oh you probably won't need to do that." He said in Korean. I thought he was probably saying bye and didn't ask.

I walked into the building and waved bye at him. I watched him leave through the glass doors from inside the building and when I couldn't see him anymore, I went up to my room.

I'm not tired... I checked the world clock app and it was about 1:30 PM in the US... no wonder I wasn't tired.

I downloaded a different app; a language learning app. I spent the rest of the night practicing Korean and picked up alphabet letters and words like "apple" and "cat".

By 8, everyone else in the room was ready to go out. A trainer woke everyone up and told me that today was my first day in training.

There were about 20 girls with me total. Following me around was a translator. We went to the singing practice room and the instructor started yelling at the other girls. Apparently he was "critiquing" them about how they sang yesterday, according to my translator. I wasn't yelled at, I was just given a glare.

"You're new here, huh?" He looked me up and down.

Woah.. chill dude.. I thought mean thoughts about him to myself.

"Get in the booth and start singing." The translator translated for me.
"What song?" I replied.
"What ever the f you want princess."
Woah okay... so this is how it's going to be huh?

I stepped into the studio and sang my favorite song. Somewhere over the Rainbow💖.

After singing, I heard a mouthful of criticisms from the teacher which was later translated into: "You need to sing louder, you can't expect anyone to be moved by your voice if you sing like that."

I'm sure my translator left out most of the bad words...
After singing, the other girls went to the dance practice room and I was taken to another room where I was going to be taught Korean.
On the way to the room, there was a crowd and lots of noise. My translator and I went to check it out. It was a young boy who had snuck into the building and was getting dragged out. "I WANT TO SEE MY FAIRIES!" "YOONA BABYYYY I LOVE YOU!! SANA BABY I LOVE YOUUUU!!!!" His screams were translated for me.

Oh boy... how in the world did he even get in..?

I finally got to the room after watching that event unfold. The teacher was an old woman who had spirits as high as Mount Everest.

After a long and dreadful 3 hours of Korean, I could say small phrases like "How much?" And "Please be careful!"

After that class, I was allowed to return to my room because of my jet lag. On my way out, I saw a tall guy. A familiar tall guy.

It was TaeHyung! The tall guy from yesterday! He was walking down the hall without a mask or hat on this time. As soon as we made eye contact, I panicked and ran to him. I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to a hallway where there weren't many people.

"DUDE!! What are you doing here?? You can't just come in here! I just saw a guy get dragged out!"

"What really?" He responded.

"YES. You can't be here! We have to sneak you out somehow so you don't get in trouble."

I grabbed his hand and walked towards the front of the building.
People were looking over at us and chattering. Oh no... they're on to him... oh no...

"Hehe, don't worry everyone, he's with me, he was just on his way out!" I said, trying to suppress the suspicions.

I looked back at him to make sure he was making a believable face and wasn't giving us away. He had a big smirk on his face as if he heard the best joke in the world.

Right before we reached the entrance, he pulled my arm back, causing me to fall back into his arms.

He hugged me tight and said: "you're too cute to not be mine." In Korean.

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