Little MISS bigbang chapter 7
“STOP, STOP, STOP!” the choreographer’s scream boomed at just the instant Ji opened the door. He and SeungRi were late, thanks to the fiasco that had happened a few hours ago. He quickly glanced into the room and studied each individual inside it, looking for Youngbae. The leader took a deep breath, and sighed in what he might have been relief when he realized that the lead singer had decided to skip practice. “AISH YOU! JIYONG! YOU’RE THE LEADER AND YOU’RE LATE TOO! FIRST SEUNGHYUN DECIDED TO SKIP A WEEK BECAUSE OF HIS TRIP TO JAPAN, YOUNGBAE CALLED IN SICK, AND NOW YOU’RE LATE! WHERE’S THE MAKNAE!!” Jiyong took a few steps backwards, surprised by their choreographer's angry demeanor.
“Bae’s sick?” he asked in reply, and the choreographer was surprised to realize that for the first time the two besties didn't know what wss happening with each other. When Ji figured out that it was a “new” thing for him not to know what was going on with his best friend (if he was still one), he quickly licked his lips and blinked. "Ah, yeah, yeah,” the leader said, trying to be casual as he nervously waved his hand. “I’m just surprised he didn't pretend to be well this time and took a day off like he needs to."
“Now, where’s Maknae?!” The choreographer peered behind jiyong and noticed Seungri was hiding behind the leader. “Aish, come on! I don’t have time for your tricks and games again, Ri!” The choreographer grabbed the youngest man's arm, and Jiyong’s eyes shot open to glare at the grip as he worried that it was too tight. “YA, SEUNGRI!” the choreographer boomed, but then he became aware of an unfamiliar scent and a stinging, yet giddy feeling erupted in hid chest as soon as his fingers met the maknae’s thin arm. He couldn’t believe what had happened; it was like his senses were tingling and an electric current ran under his skin. The overwhelming scent of magnolia reached the choreographer's nostrils, and then the he felt the familiar, heated sensation of a warm blush appearing on hid cheeks.
“Sorry, Hyung. I took a bit longer than I meant to to get ready and, um, don’t get mad anymore.” Seungri slowly looked up, and his eyes met the choreographer’s. The singer tilted his head sideways in awe and wondered what on earth was wrong with the older man. Why in the world was the choreographer staring at him like a boy who was meeting his crush for the first time? The stunned look was complete with his mouth hanging half open and his eye lids batting nonstop as though he was having a facial seizure.
“AH....” Jiyong swatted the other man's hands off of his maknae's arm. “Hyung, let’s go and start, ne?!” Ji smiled widely, doing his best to hide the uncomfortable feelings that had arisen in him, and pulled the maknae further into the room. He noticed in his peripheral vision how the whole room had became silent and the other band member's eyes were focused on them, staring. Each member performed distinct move in which his head and the nose of raised itself up to savor an unfamiliar scent that wafted through the air as they tried to figure out where on earth it was coming from. Ji and Ri settled their bags at the back of the room and proceeded to the middle of the dance floor. The leader gave Daesung a nod, but noticed Dae was looking at Seungri. “DAESUNG-ya!” Jiyong called. “Everybody, can you all stop gawking at how late Maknae and I were and start practicing!?!” Jiyong was beginning to get pissed off, but he was glad that Seungri had somehow remained oblivious and unknown despite the prying eyes burning into him.
=======
“This is a first!” A woman's voice startled Youngbae’s eyes wide open. Youngbae lifted his cap away from his face to see the soft smile of YG’s official doctor, Haena.
“Haena-ssi...” Bae slowly sat up as the doctor pulled the white sheet on the medical bed to the side and sat in front of the lead singer. Youngbae pouted and wondered he should do; he couldn't miss practice, but the idea of dealing with Seungri and Jiyong was just nauseating. He was torn.
“You’ve been here for three hours now. It’s funny, because this reminds me of kids trying to skip class by hiding out in the infirmary.” She laughed as she took out a random trainee's chart and started scribbling down notes. Bae slid off the bed and plopped himself down in the chair across from her. His hands ran over the weird medical displays as his mind raced and he wondered if he needed to take something to keep his stress at bay. He'd never liked taking anything to calm his nerves, though. He liked to think that all sickness or delusions or stress could be handled, controlled, with his mind. But how the hell could he process a man magically turning into a woman?! Youngbae let out a huge, despondent sigh.
“That’s worrying... You’ve been sighing since you got here. Mind telling me about it?” The doctor smiled kindly at him, and Youngbae licked his lips and hesitated as he carefully considered what he could and should say and wondered where in the world he could start. Bae wondered if he could even say a thing without making himself sound like a crazy idiot who needed not only medical help, but mental help as well. He knew he wasn't crazy, that it wasn't all in his mind, but he also didn't want to reveal enough to make the doctor want to perform a “physical” exam on Ri, which could lead to the younger man being admitted in a science lab to be studied as a lab rat. The idea alone made terrorizing chills run down Youngbae’s spine. “Ya..." the doctor said warningly. "If you don’t start talking, I’ll be prescribing you some ‘bonding time’ with the company psychiatrist, and you know I’m not kidding when I assign people sessions with the shrink....” She let the threat hang in the air, leaving it up to Youngbae to decide whether or not je was going to spill.
Youngbae sat up straighter and coughed a little. “You see....” The singer drummed his fingers on the table nervously. “What do you do when, umm..." Bae struggled to begin explaining things to the woman, and he bit his lip as he rethought his question. "What do you do when things suddenly change...? Like, you just see someone as ordinary, black and white.... then the next day you see that person in full color. You know though, that the colors need to fade, must fade. The beauty must go away that person should go back to black and white. Do I stay away and wait for the colors to disappear so things will go back to normal, or enjoy the time that the colors are here, however long that might be...?”
The doctor stopped scribbling and looked at Bae, perplexed, and the young man stopped breathing, waiting for her response.
She stared. “Umm...”
“Please, Haenassi, don’t tell me you’re sending me to the shrink,” Youngbae begged.
“Wait... Are you in love?”
“No, I'm not!” Youngbae denied vehemently and straightened up once more. “It will never be love. It can’t be love! Can we just... Argh!” Youngbae slammed his forehead onto the table as he expressed his frustration, and when he flesh met the tabletop a loud sound echoed about the room.
“YA!” the doctor screamed, but the man was so emotionally stressed that he was just ignored the splitting headache his little stunt had caused him. The doctor sighed and rubbed the singer’s head gently. “You're thinking too much, Youngbae.”
“I always think; if I didn't, then why did God give me a brain," he shot back rhetorically.
“No, stupid. What I mean is that you’re obviously really worried, too worried. Why don’t you just shut up and enjoy the color while it lasts? It’ll be a nice feeling, judging from the way your eyes shone when you talked about how beautiful the colors are.”
Bae lifted his face, setting his chin on the table and pouting. The doctor found the action utterly adorable and tapped her ballpoint pen against his pink lips. “Look, let go and let it out sometimes, Bae. We already have a Kwon Jiyong who takes a million hours to contemplate doing anything but getting a tattoo. We don’t need another neurotic weirdo like him, ok?”
The idea made Youngbae laugh as he realized how right she was.
He figured that instead of adding insult to injury and making things even more complicated, he’d rather help solve the problem. Seungri was in deep shit, and he didn't want to make his dear maknae sink in further. After figuring things out and putting things in new perspective a bright smile crept onto Bae’s face.
“There we go, a smile.” The doctor smirked and winked knowingly at him.
“I have another question..." Youngbae began tentatively and blushed a little as he spoke.
“Hmmm?”
“Do you... um.... I have a friend- A COUSIN- going through puberty, I think. Could you tell me how to take care of the body, like hygein and stuff?” Bae asked the question very carefully, not mentioning the gender of his ‘friend’, erm... cousin.
The doctor looked at him quizzically, but then remembered that it was not in the oath of a physician to ask the questions she wanted to when a patient asked for advice. She sighed and pulled out an envelope, opened it, scribbled a few things, and then showed them to Youngbae. “I need to go back to the document room to check something. Find what you’re looking for in these and just take them, ok?” She asked.
Youngbae nodded, and the moment the doctor left him alone, he tore open the enveloped. His eyes went wide when he saw the contents- tons of brochures about puberty, on the left, girls... and on the right, boys....Youngbae gulped and his eyes darted to the back room, making sure the doctor was busy with something. Making the most of out of the opportunity that being alone presented, he rushed to collect a copy of each girl’s brochures and tuck them inside his bag.
“You get what you were looking for?” The doctor, Haena, reentered the room just as Bae finished in the nick of time. The singer stood up and bowed respectfully before dashing out of the clinic. The doctor was fighting the urge to laugh and looked to see what Youngbae had taken so she could refill the slots. "Eh? Youngbae only took the one's about girls?” the doctor wondered aloud and curiously glanced at the door that was still swinging slightly. Then she shook her head, brushing off her questions about why Youngbae would need a girl’s puberty and hygiene brochure.