+ thirty six

Baekhyun made good on his word to Taeyeon's threat and avoided Narda, something that proved to be very difficult for him. Things went back to the way they were between them and she didn't understand why. As much as she tried to talk to him, he always took off, and Taeyeon was always around like she had nothing better to do with her time. Narda went back to her old ways of stalking Baekhyun, since it was the only way she got to see him.

As time was running out, her boss was pressuring her to give her answer, for renewal of her contract. With five days before EXO would travel to Japan for the three final concerts of the EXO Planet #1 tour, the ultimatum for Baekhyun was getting closer, and Narda had been given an ultimatum of her own. The school wanted to know by the end of the year whether she wanted to continue teaching or not, so that they could make all the necessary arrangements with her university. Narda was sitting on her bed when she finally got a text from Baekhyun.

♡byunnie♡: guti, have u made a decision
on ur job??

narda: no. not yet...why?

♡byunnie♡: i cant explain right this moment
but please renew 

narda: hm...

narda: so u can continue to ignore me,
right?

message read.

Though he read her message and didn't reply, Narda heaved a sigh and sent an email to her boss, asking to renew her contract. Then she sent another email to her university, and her academic advisor to inform them that she was planning to spend another year in Korea. That left her with another year and a half of studies. She would spend the last one in Korea, and would have to return to the United States for her final semester in order to get her degree.

She hoped she wouldn't end up regretting her decision.

On the day that EXO left for Japan, Narda made another attempt to get Baekhyun's attention. Florencia, Acacia, and Nari had been invited to travel with them to Japan. Taeyeon, Sarang and Mae had their own schedules to fulfill and would not be going with them. But Florencia and Acacia would be travelling to the Asian country for the first time, while Nari had only been invited as part of her job. SM Entertainment was not yet aware of the fact that she and Kyungsoo were seeing each other. Florencia had invited Narda to travel with them, since she had been given a web show on the SM Entertainment youtube platform called Kkoch's Diary, and needed someone to explore the town with. But with Narda being banned from seing EXO, Narda knew it wouldn't be such a good idea.

With the three weeks she had before the new school semester started, EXO would be gone, and she would be in Seoul alone for the first week and a half. She had called her parents and asked if they would like for her to come home for a while. 

She got up early that morning that EXO would be travelling. Nari had gotten up earlier and left for the SM building to pick up her stylist equipment. Then she would meet the managers and the group at the airport to catch a flight to Japan. Narda grabbed her cordless boombox from her bedroom dresser and walked across the street purposefully, with a bucket filled to the brim with water in her other hand. She connected her cellphone to the boombox via blue tooth after setting the bucket down on the sidewalk and played a song on it. It was early morning and people stared at her as they walked down the street, but she didn't care.  

Narda began to belt out the lyrics at the top of her lungs and it wasn't long before it was heard inside the building.

Baekhyun and the other EXO members were inside and had just finished having breakfast. They were returning to their rooms to grab their luggage when they heard a familiar voice singing outside. Baekhyun peeked out the window to see Narda belting out lyrics to a song in Spanish. The door to his dorm room was open, and Jongdae walked in, leaving his luggage out in the hallway.

He walked over to the window and looked outside. "What is she doing?"

Chanyeol heard the commotion too and entered the room, stopping behind his two group mates and looking over their shoulders and out the window. He face palmed himself. "She said its a tradition in her country. When a guy likes a girl, and he wants to win her over, he'll serenade her." 

"So...Baekhyun is a woman?" Jongdae concluded jokingly, earning himself a glare from his group mate.

"I'll go talk to her." Baekhyun said, rushing out of the room. 

Chanyeol added after he was gone, "She also said that out of tradition, if he liked the song, he has to throw a bucket of water on her."

"What?" Jongdae asked, eyes widening in surprise.

"Yeah." Chanyeol nodded.

Baekhyun made it out of the building where Narda was standing in record time. When she saw him, she smiled at him and hit the pause button on her phone. The music stopped playing and she stuffed the phone into her pocket.

"What are you doing, Guti?" He asked her, looking everywhere around him to make sure that no one else had seen her. 

He knew that if this information got back to Taeyeon, she would keep her word and give the pictures to the press. 

"I just wanted to give you a nice sending away present, since you're going to be in Japan for a week, and when you return I won't be here." She informed him. Pulling her phone out of her pocket again, she placed it in his hands and then grabbed the bucket of water. "Now take this and throw it on me if you liked the song. And please hold onto my phone so it won't get wet."

Baekhyun shook his head, refusing to take the bucket from her. "I'm not gonna throw a bucket of water on you."

"You have to." She insisted, there was a hint in her voice which let him know she would take offense to him refusing. Pushing the bucket towards him, Narda tried to get him to take it in his hands. "Its tradition in my country. If you don't do it, then it means you don't like the song, and you don't like me."

"Wait." Her words sunk in--not the ones about throwing a bucket of clod water on her, but the ones about being gone once he returned from Japan. His heart stopped for a fraction of a second in panic. "You're leaving? Why? I thought you were renewing your contract with the school."

"I did renew." She assured him with a nod of her head, the heavy bucket of water was weighing down her hands and she got tired. Setting it down on the concrete sidewalk in between them, she continued. "But I'll have three weeks to kill before the new semester and I want to visit my family."

"So when we see each other again, technically its going to be next year." Baekhyun sighed. He didn't look forward to the thought of not seeing Narda for three whole weeks. He thought it was much too long of a time for her to be on the other side of the world. At least for half of the time he would be in Japan, performing the last three concerts of the Exoplanet #1 tour, but after that he knew he would really suffer her absence.

"Well, yeah." She shrugged.

She also didn't like the idea of leaving, since she had made so many friends in Korea. But she also missed her family, and she wanted to see them.

-

That afternoon, the boys were gone and Narda packed her belongings. She had gotten a plane ticket days earlier, and got a cab to the airport. Her job was willing to pay for her travelling expenses, and she didn't have to worry about a thing. It was what she had been promised when she took the teaching and studying abroad opportunity in Korea. Nari and Chanyeol knew she would be leaving that day, and both were just as clingy as children the night before, begging her not to leave. But she assured them that she would come back.

It was a twelve hour flight to California and her parents were there to pick her up when she arrived at the airport, even though it was almost four in the morning. 

Narda was tired and told her parents about her time in Korea on the way home, through sleep craved eyes and yawns that escaped her lips every few minutes. While she did that, she had gone on social media to see photos of the group in Japan. She also had texts from Florencia, Nari, and Chanyeol telling her that they missed her. But she didn't have any messages from Baekhyun. She sighed tiredly and stuffed her phone into the pocket of her jacket. The weather was cold for a California winter, but it was nothing compared to the cold she had experienced in Korea.

As soon as she arrived at her house, she went straight to her bedroom and let herself fall face first onto her bed. She fell asleep immediately after, and didn't wake up until late that afternoon.

There was a knock on her bedroom door, and she stirred in her bed, calling out in a groan. "Come in." She didn't have the energy to get up and open the door herself.

The door opened to reveal her friend Oriana. 

With a grin on her face, she ran into the room and jumped onto Narda's bed with excitement. "Guti, I can't believe you're finally back. Now I kind of regret not taking that study abroad in Korea offer." 

"It feels so surreal." Narda said sleepily, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands. "Like it was all a dream. Was it a dream?" She asked her friend as she sat up.

Oriana shook her head. "No. You're practically an EXO WAG."

Narda cracked a confused smile. "Is that a thing? I thought it was a football term."

Her friend shrugged her shoulders. "Well WAG means wives and girlfriends, so it shouldn't be exclusively a football term. And you've also gotten to meet Florizaba, one of the most beautiful and famous young people in Mexico. Can I have your life?"

"Its not so simple." Narda informed her, remembering all the times she had been happy over in Korea, but also all the times she had ever gotten in trouble. "SM Entertainment is scarier than you think, and then Taeyeon...I used to admire her so much. but really she's a very hateful person. She thinks she's better than everyone."

Oriana gasped and threw herself on Narda's bed. "Tell me everything."

Narda heaved a sigh, not really knowing where to begin. There was a whole year of gossip, lies, and stories to tell her. Raising an eyebrow at her, she warned, "But please don't post any of this on your EXO blog. All of this is too personal to have floating around on the internet. And they would know that it was me who said all of this, since I was the only one who knew." Of course, other than the EXO members, and their girlfriends, Narda was the only one who knew the stories and the deep secrets that no one else knew. 

Oriana promised immediately, and Narda even made her pinky swear, which she accepted to do. "We're best friends, I would never break your trust." Up until then, Oriana had proven to be a good friend to Narda. Even though she had access to Narda's private instagram account and access to pictures of her with the EXO members, Oriana didn't repost them anywhere else because Narda had asked her not to.

And what Narda appreciated most was that Oriana didn't ask her to get the members to follow her back on social media. Chanyeol did, but Narda never asked him too, and Nari did as well.

Now that she was back home, everything felt different.

She missed Korea, and she missed Baekhyun.

-

a filler ish chapter for you all because i haven't updated in a couple of days. only about four more updates before this story ends and i anticipate that i will be dont writing for this story by sunday. then i will post the blurb for the sequel. its going to be called "musi". 

musi is a korean word, but i wont tell you all what it means yet.

bc mystery and anticipation for the new story. trying to build that up. also, if you're into bts, please check out the stories in my bts series.

the chapters are super short and they're easy reads.

thank you for your love and support!

-clary