It's You Chapter 19

"It's sooo hotttt," complained HyunJae, lying on my bed. It was true. It was the middle of summer and Tokyo was shimmering from the heat. I'd closed the windows and turned on the fan, but it was still hot. And I'd ignored HyunJae's pleas to turn on the air-conditioning because the world was already polluted enough without me adding to it.
"Don't worry, when I came it was hot too, but you'll get used to it. You've only been here for 3 days, it's not always like this," I replied assuringly. I turned back to my laptop, willing JunSu to come online so we could talk.
"It better be," she said, sticking her arms in the air and examining her fingernails.
JunSu's name popped up on the screen.
"Hey, JunSu's on!" I said happily, clicking on his icon. HyunJae bounced off the bed.
"I hope he's suffering like I am," she said, dragging up a chair next to me.
"Sadist," I replied as my webcam warmed up.
"Who's a sadist?" said JunSu's voice. "I hope you're not talking about me, JaeHwa."
I laughed. "No, not you, don't worry."
"Hey prefect," said HyunJae, waving at the camera.
"You? What the heck are you doing there? I don't wanna see you, I just wanna see JaeHwa, I see you every single damn day of school," said JunSu jokingly. As his camera came on, we both saw that he was shirtless.
"I'm insulted, Park JunSu. You're so dead when I come back," said HyunJae, raising a fist. "And put a shirt on, this isn't the beach."
"Hey, I'm hot, you can't blame me."
I laughed. "A hot prefect huh? Now that's something."
"I didn't mean it like that!" objected JunSu, but he stood up and moved out of the camera's view. When he came back he had put on a singlet. "There, happy now?"
"Very."
"Actually, the plan was for me to seduce JaeHwa with my hot body, but you spoilt it HyunJae," he remarked, messing up his hair and putting on a sheepish face.
"Hah!" said HyunJae. "Don't go breaking your fangirl's hearts, JunSu," she said warningly.
"Fangirls?" I said, looking at HyunJae, then JunSu. "Oh! What kind of friend are you, Park JunSu, you never told me you had a fan club!"
"It's not a fan club!" said JunSu, but we saw him blush. HyunJae and I burst out laughing.
"Aww, you made the boy blush," said HyunJae. JunSu screwed up his face.
"I know how to make you blush, Kim HyunJae," he shot back, sticking out his tongue at her.
"Don't you dare!" said HyunJae, suddenly serious.
"Damn you guys are close now," I said. "Maybe it was a good thing I moved huh?"
"Don't be stupid JaeHwa, we're all close. Even if you stayed on HyunJae and I would probably be like this anyway. So it's nothing to do with you leaving."
"What he said."
"Get your own comforting words, don't steal mine!"
"I so did not steal yours, I didn't say anything!"
"Yeah yeah, whatever, I can't hear you, blah blah blah," said JunSu, putting his hands over his ears.
"Eurgh, you are SO annoying!" said HyunJae, crossing her arms and glaring at him. I laughed. This was going to be the best holiday I'd had since I'd arrived in Japan.
---
"Yes people, you have heard right! We are giving away two tickets to spend two days and a night with Super Junior while they're here in Japan!"
I looked over at HyunJae who was surfing the internet on her laptop. I turned up the radio. "Honestly, are you thinking of entering that contest?" she asked skeptically.
"No," I said quietly. "But I like the idea."
She sighed. "You haven't really let go of him have you." She looked at me. It was a statement, not a question.
"I like to think I have," I admitted. "And I think I have. But there's still some part of me that doesn't want to."
"Don't worry, sooner or later he'll just be a small chapter in your life," she said assuringly. "I mean, I had EunHyuk and SiWon, and they're a bigger problem than DongHae. But that's over now."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Just wait for the cue-to-call soon, when you hear 'Miracle' by the one and only Super Junior! The twentieth person will be on their way to spend two days with Super Junior! So don't go anywhere. Meanwhile, here's Dong Bang Shin Ki with 'Purple Line'!" The Dj's voice faded out as DBSK's song came in. Sometimes I found it weird how DBSK was referred to as 'Tohoshinki' here in Japan, but this was a Korean station, so they said DBSK.
"Hey, come and look at this," said HyunJae.
"What, don't tell me you've fallen for SHINee," I said, leaving the desk and plopping myself on the bed beside her.
"Hey, Replay is a nice song!" she said. "But I still like Super Junior better."
"Yeah... which explains why you're on their fan website?" I looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "I thought you were done with them."
"I was, but I was bored and thought I'd go here... I haven't been here for a long time, you understand? Just thought I'd... see what they're up to."
"You know what they're up to, they're coming here."
"You know what I mean. I want... to see them being cute again. I just wanna see the faces that they show to the fans instead of the faces that they show to us."
I was silent. I knew. I so wanted to see them being cute and funny again, instead of them fighting and being serious. I watched HyunJae scroll down the page, looking for videos.
"Why do they keep writing stuff? I just want to see them, not read about them," she muttered. Even though she wasn't stopping, I could still see the pictures. Of DongHae smiling, laughing, pulling faces, goofing around with SungMin and EunHyuk. Only I knew how much they weren't really him.
"Finally...!" said HyunJae as she found a video halfway down the page.
'DongHae talking in his sleep' was the caption.
"This would be funny," she said, clicking the play button.
"Meh," was all I said. "I don't really want to see this."
"You don't have to, go back to your radio," she replied as it started buffering. Even though I didn't want to, I stayed on the bed, waiting for the torture to start.

It was obviously EunHyuk's camera, he loved videoing the others. The video started with SungMin smiling, sticking his face into the camera, being cute. I smiled at that. At least I knew that he was like that even without the camera. YeSung sauntered into view. I remembered the last time I saw him, looking grim and downcast. "EunHyuk ah, come and wake up his lazy pig," he said.
"I thought I was the lazy pig," said EunHyuk's voice from behind the camera. I looked at HyunJae, but she appeared to have no reaction to the sound of his voice.
"No, you're the dirty disgusting pig," said SiWon, coming out of a door and smiling at the camera. HyunJae paused the video.
"You think they got over it?" I asked before she could say anything.
"I have no idea. But they're smiling, and that's all I want them to do," she replied.
"They could be pretending, you know," I said, but she shook her head.
"I know SiWon. He doesn't smile unless he really means it."
She started the video again.
RyeoWook emerged from his room in his pyjamas, looking half asleep. "Eh, hyung...!" he said, when he saw the camera, then ran back into his room. I smiled, he was so adorable.
"So where's the pig huh?" said EunHyuk. YeSung pulled him into a room, where a figure was lying on the bed. "Oh, this pig." The camera zoomed in on the figure's face.
It was DongHae, sound asleep.
Before I could shut my eyes, the camera swivelled around at EunHyuk and YeSung's face. "You see people," said EunHyuk. "Our poor little DongHae dances the night away, then comes back and can't fall asleep because of ShinDong's snores. So he's always the last to wake up."
"This is our mission everyday," added YeSung. The camera turned back to DongHae. A hand entered the view and started poking him.
"DongHae ah," said EunHyuk. "Wake up!" Another hand joined in the poking. DongHae's face scrunched up and he turned over, pulling the blanket over his head. YeSung pulled the blanket off.
"Mmmmm," groaned DongHae. YeSung sighed.
"We'll come back later, we have to get ourselves ready now." EunHyuk aimed the camera at himself. "But this mission isn't over," he added, giving a cute pose. A new scene came up, with the words "10 minutes later". YeSung and EunHyuk entered the room again, calling out "DongHae yaaaa...!"
EunHyuk put the camera close to DongHae's face. "Do you have anything to say to the camera?" he said teasingly.
"JaeHwa," said DongHae softly, his face contorted in pain. I froze. My heart started thumping. Did I just hear right? HyunJae looked at me, her eyes wide. The video was still going on. "JaeHwa, don't go, don't go," murmured DongHae. There was a silence behind the camera. I stopped the video.
"What the..." HyunJae managed to choke out. In the background, the radio was playing a song by SNSD.
"I heard wrong, right?" I said desperately, willing her to say that yes, I had heard wrong, he had said something else.
"I must have heard wrong too then," was her reply. She looked dazed.
"No...!" I said, burying my head in my hands. "No, no, no, no, no!" I looked up. "When was that video taken? I need to know!"
HyunJae reopened the page. "April 2008," she said.
"You've got to be kidding me!" I said. "He was the one who said goodbye to me! He let me go!"
"You know he didn't mean it JaeHwa," said HyunJae. "He's still in love with you."
At that moment, Miracle started playing on the radio. I grabbed HyunJae's phone from beside her.
"What are you doing?!" demanded HyunJae, trying to grab it back.
"I need to see him!" I said, punching in the station's number.
"But you're trying to forget him!" she said, giving up and looking bewildered.
"Not when he can't forget me!" I said. Busy number. I called again. Busy.
I tried at least 6 times when the phone was finally picked up.
"Hello, and welcome to Kiss the Radio Japan!" said the Dj's voice. "You're our lucky twentieth caller through! What's your name?"
I nearly dropped the phone in shock.
"Hi, I'm JaeHwa," I said, trying not to sound as panicked as I felt.
"Well JaeHwa, do you know what's going to happen now?"
"Oh my God," was all I said. The Dj laughed.
"Well, yes, you might be going to stay with Super Junior for two days, but first you have to answer some trivial questions about them."
My heart sank. I wasn't ready for this, I had been out of touch with them for a year. I looked at HyunJae for advice. She nodded at me, then pointed at the computer, giving me a grin. Her researching skills were legendary in school.
"Are you ready, JaeHwa sshi?" prompted the Dj.
"Yes," I said firmly. "I'm ready."