“…and done!” I said.

We finally finished recording Jiyong’s part today and we are going to continue with my part. Jiyong suggested that we should finish the recording as soon as possible so he can proceed to the editing part and then we could have plenty of time to practice for our performance.

“Alright noona, let’s do your part now” he said as he came out from the recording room.

“Okay” I said and walked towards the recording room.

I put on the headphone and straighten the sheet of lyrics in front of me. After I feel that everything is settled, I gave an ‘ok’ sign with my hand to signal Jiyong that I’m ready to begin.

“Okay noona here we go. 3… 2… 1” he pressed the record button and the play button for the music.

The music begins playing and I begin to sing my part which is the chorus of the song.

Boy I’m ready for your love (yea yea)

You got me going steady for your love (oh oh)

Nobody but you I’m thinking of (don’t cry)

So heavenly so obvious (thanks a lot, yea)

Ooh baby I’m so ready for your love (love me)

You got me going steady for your love (we belong together uh)

Ain’t nobody but you I’m thinking of (yes)

That’s only because we belong together (let’s go)

“How’s that?” I asked through the microphone when the music is off.

“Hmm… let me hear it once” he said and he played the record again.

I could hear my voice singing playing inside the recording room. This is my first time recording inside a real studio so I’m kind of amazed by how it feels.

“So?” I asked once again after the record stops.

I can see that Jiyong is still trying to figure out something after hearing the record. He kept quite, closed his eyes and his hand under his chin. After a few seconds, he finally opened his eyes and spoke…

“Well, that was good… but not good enough. Let’s count that as a warm up and you should start again” he said.

The moment he said those words, I could already tell that he is now the professional Jiyong who is a perfectionist in his work and I could also sense that if I didn’t do well in the next few hours, then I’m screwed…

----

“Great job noona! Let’s call it a day, shall we?” he said.

“Yeah… thank you” I said.

Thank God I’m not dead today… I breathe in relief.

“So, now that our recording is finally done. I’ll proceed to the editing part tomorrow and I have to admit that our recording process is very fast” he said.

“Is it too fast…? I mean is it good or bad?” I said.

“No, no. It’s great actually because the editing part kind of takes the most time to do since I have to put every single pieces together so yea” he said.

“Okay then. I’ll help you” I offered.

“No need noona. I mean, it’s fine, I can do it myself. You take a rest and prepare for the performance” he said.

“Come on Ji, you know that I’m known to be good in mixing beats with the record and putting them into one song. So, let me help you” I said.

“Did you just show off about your ability noona?” he raised one of his eyebrows.

“Um… nope. I… was just trying to convince you that I might be a good help” I smiled awkwardly.

“Okay then, I’ll let you help” he chuckled.

I checked the clock and it’s still 4 in the evening. We were sent home early from school because there was a teacher meeting and all teacher has to attend it.

“What to do now…” I whispered but enough for Jiyong to hear it.

“We can hang out at the back garden like we used to?” he suggested.

“Sounds great” I smiled.

“Okay then, you go ahead first. I’ll make us some juice. What kind of juice do you want noona?” he asked.

“Hmm… I’ll have banana juice” I said.

“Alright! 1 banana juice coming right over!” he said and head off to the kitchen.

I went to the back garden myself and I approached Gaho to say hi since I haven’t been able to see him since I arrive here this afternoon because Jiyong started the recording right away. The moment he saw my face in front of his house, he stands up and jogged towards me while wiggling his tail as if he wanted me to play with him.

“Are you happy to see me Gaho? Do you want to come out and play?” I said while petting him.

“Woof!” Gaho barked and started running around in small circles while jumping a bit and wiggle his tail.

“Come out then! Feel free to run around the garden” I stand up and lure him to come out from his house.

I immediately run towards the center of the garden and Gaho followed me behind, running as fast as he could.

“That’s it boy! Come!” I said while running.

I then jogged around in circle while facing Gaho and he followed my feet as if he wanted to catch it. I kept doing that until I saw Jiyong coming towards the garden while holding 2 glass of juices. I immediately stop playing with Gaho and walked towards the swings.

“I can see that you both had a great time playing there. Tired noona?” he chuckled and hands me my juice.

“Yeah… Thanks Ji” I take the juice from him while trying to catch my breath.

We both sat quietly on the swings while enjoying our own drinks and the breeze. I looked around the garden and I could see that the flowers that were planted there are all blooming in different colors.

“Those flowers seemed to be always blooming, did you hire someone to take care of it?” I asked.

“Nope, I take care of those flowers” he said which made me a little surprised.

“Really? You watered them everyday by yourself?” I asked in disbelief since there are many flowers planted on the flower beds. There are like 3 to 4 big flower beds.

“Yes noona. My mom didn’t like the idea of other people taking care of her flowers and I’m the only one that is constantly at home so I guess I have no choice other than taking care of them for her” he said.

“But it is fun though even though it is tiring to water that many flowers everyday, they are very refreshing and beautiful to look at” he continued.

“They’re indeed so beautiful…” I said, mesmerized by the colorful flowers.

“Speaking of watering flowers… I haven’t done the watering for today. Do you mind helping me?” he said.

“I thought your mom hated the idea of other people taking care of her flowers?” I asked, looking at him.

“Trust me, she wouldn’t mind having a beautiful lady like you taking care of her flowers noona” he said with a smile which makes me blush which I don’t even know why I’m blushing and have this weird feeling inside my stomach when he mentioned the word beautiful…

“So… silence means a yes then noona. Come on, I’ll show you how to water them properly” he said and was about to stand up before he says…

“Oh, and by the way noona, you looked cute when you’re blushing” he chuckled and walked away, leaving me with my face which is as red as a tomato.

----

“So, here is your watering can and we’re going to fill it in with water but don’t fill it too full because you don’t want water spilling out from the big hole on top here” he said pointing at the hole on top of the watering can where you fill your water from.

I did what he said and filled the water just at the perfect volume.

“Alright, now you start watering them from the front towards the back. Pour your water towards the soil and don’t pour too much water on each flower or else it will be overflowing with water” he explained while showing me the demonstration on one flower bed.

“That’s how you do it, try on the next flower bed noona” he said while pointing the flower bed next to the one he just watered.

I walked towards the flower bed while carrying the watering can which is a bit heavy and I have to use both of my hands to carry it. Once I reached it, I started to water the flowers just like how Jiyong showed me just now. I poured the water towards the soil and I started from the front line of flowers towards the back line. I smiled when I successfully watered the flowers and I immediately moved towards the next flower bed and so does Jiyong.

Each of us watered one flower bed which made us finish the job quickly. It wasn’t that hard watering those flowers. Well, it is indeed tiring especially when I have to hold the heavy watering can but it was fun just like what Jiyong said.

“All done!” he cheered and walked away to put the watering cans back.

“Oh!” Jiyong said suddenly.

“What is it?” I asked, turning my head towards his direction where I saw him picking up something.

“I think my mom just delivered me new flower seeds… well, I guessed you’re going to learn much about gardening today” he said while showing me a bag of seeds.

“You want me to plant those…?” I asked.

“Yeah, you don’t want to noona?” he said as he come closer to me.

“Well, it’s just that I might be bad at gardening…” I said, biting my lower lips, a habit that I use to do whenever I’m nervous or not sure about something.

“That’s why I told you that you’re going to learn much about gardening today because I’m going to teach you how to plant these. Come noona” he said, walking ahead of me.

“Where are you going to plant those Ji? Aren’t the flower beds full already?” I asked while following him.

“If my mom sent me a new flower seeds, then what she meant is that I have to pluck some of these flowers and exchange them with the new ones. She often gets bored if it is always the same flowers growing here that’s why she always sent me new ones” he said.

“Does she visit often to be bored looking at the same flowers again and again?” I asked.

“Well, she did visit every Saturday and Sunday but she hasn’t got the time to visit again lately since she is busy with her new work project. I guess she is visiting soon if she sent me new flower seeds” he said.

“Your mom works?” I asked again.

“Yes, as a fashion designer. Now can we get to work noona? You have been so curious today” he chuckled.

I didn’t realize that I was asking way more questions than I ever asked before…

----

“Oh God, I can’t pull off this one Ji” I complained.

“I think the root of that flower has gotten deep inside the soil. Let me help you” he said.

We were both plucking some of the flowers for the past 20 minutes and I’ve come to the last flower but it seemed that this flower doesn’t want to be plucked…

“On the count of 3, we pulled it together noona” he said while grabbing the flower too.

“Ready? 1… 2…” he counted.

“3!” we both pulled the flower with extra force since it was so hard to get it out. I wonder if the flower is gonna get destroyed after we successfully pulled it…

“Ah!” we successfully pulled out that flower but because we put too much force on pulling it, we both lose our balance causing both of us to fall backwards.

“Ouch” we both said.

I dust off the dirt from my hand and suddenly I looked down at my waist and found Jiyong’s hand resting on my waist. I realize that he has been catching me because I landed on top of his body. I then looked up towards my left and Jiyong’s face were only few inches away from mine… sensing that I was staring at him, he stared back at me. Our faces are now so close that I could feel his breath on my face and I could see that he stared at my lips and then back at my eyes. My heart is beating so fast that I was worried that it’s loud enough for him to hear it. I could see that he moves his face forward slowly, the tip of our noses are already touching. He then slowly tilts his head and like being hypnotized, I slowly brought my face towards his too and slowly closed my eyes… 

“Woof!”

We both were surprised by Gaho’s bark that we immediately draw back our faces and I quickly stood up, fixing and dusting off a few dirt on my clothes, so does he.

“Ahem… sorry about that noona…” he said, faking a cough while rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

“Yeah… I-its okay… let’s plant the seed” I said without looking at him as I could feel that my cheeks were hot, I don’t want him to see me blush. I quickly pick up the seeds and walk towards the flower bed.

We spent the rest of the day planting those seeds. Jiyong has been teaching me how to plant those seeds properly and I kind of successfully plant all the seeds.

“That’s a wrap then for today noona” he said, watering the last part of the soil where we planted the seeds before.

“Whew finally” I said, wiping the sweats on my forehead away.

I helped Jiyong return back the gardening tools that we used just now to the small storage room in the garden. I was surprised that such small wooden storage room could store so many gardening tools. Jiyong’s mom must be really into gardening to have all these different kinds of gardening tools. My house does have few flowers too but my parents always hire someone to take care of them so I don’t have gardening tools except for the main ones such as watering can and small shovel.

“Water noona?” JIyong ask while handing me a glass of water.

“Yeah, thank you” I said, accepting the glass of water he handed.

We were now resting on his living room. We’re both exhausted after those gardening activities today. I checked the clock and it’s 6 pm already.

“Want to stay for dinner noona?” he asked.

“Maybe next time Ji, I’m sorry. My parents are coming home early today and they said that they brought some of their colleagues so we can have dinner together somewhere” I said.

“Why do you want to have dinner with them? They’re probably just going to ignore you and talk about their businesses” he said.

“Well… I have no other options Ji, as much as I wanted to just have dinner alone at home compared to with them, I need to be there for some unreasonable reasons that my parents told me like I need to have a knowledge about their businesses or their colleagues wanted to see me when they don’t even care about my presence later on” I said.

“I pity you then noona. I hope you survive through the whole dinner” he chuckled.

“Oh how nice of you” I said sarcastically.

“I’ll walk you home then noona?” he offered.

“That’s not necessary for today Ji, my dad is going to pick me up straight from here to the restaurant, that’s why I brought these changes of clothes here” I said while holding up a paper bag.

Suddenly my cellphone rings, I took it out from my pocket and the screen of my phone flashed the caller’s name which is my dad.

“Speaking of the devil” I said while holding up my phone, showing the screen towards Jiyong.

I answered the call and my dad said that he is 5 minutes away from Jiyong’s house. I quickly gathered my things and get ready to go.

“Thanks for today Ji, and also the gardening lesson” I said.

“You’re welcome noona. Take care and good luck with the dinner” he chuckled.

Soon my dad’s car arrived in front of his house and I quickly hop on the car so that we won’t be late for that dinner.

----

Later that night, I couldn’t sleep properly, I keep tossing and turning for God knows how long but I can’t seem to fall asleep. One thing that has been invading my mind is that incident that happened back there at his garden. The one that we almost “kissed” ...

I can’t seem to stop thinking about that little incident and mostly, I couldn’t get his face out of my mind. I keep imagining how he looked like that moment when our face was only few inches away from each other. From that distance I could see clearly his facial features… I have to admit that he looked handsome with those eyes that made me feel hypnotized… and his lips…

His lips are very tempting… I wondered what his lips tastes like… wait, what am I thinking?! I mentally slap myself for thinking in such erted way.

I tried my best to sleep but at the end I failed again. I then decided to just play with my phone and see if it could make my eyes sleepier. I ended up checking my Instagram to see some new posts there, as I scroll down the timeline, I stopped at one post which turns out to be Jiyong’s new post. It was a photo-shoot picture of him wearing a clothes which looked like a designer clothes. I read his caption and indeed he was wearing the clothes that his mom personally designed and he sort of promotes the clothes there. The picture was shot until Jiyong’s waist which makes it not too zoomed out, I stared at his face and he looked different here. He is younger than me but when he is all styled up like this, he looked way older and more mature than how he usually looked. I couldn’t stop staring and analyzing every inch of his face… unknowingly, I even brought my hand up to my phone screen and trace his face using my index finger. I traced his eyes, nose and I stopped when I reached his lips… once again, I found myself thinking about that incident before and wondering how his lips tastes like…

Oh my God! What am I thinking again?! I sounded like a total ert just now. Ugh, I must have lost my mind… come on brain, don’t do this to me! I said to myself inside my head while shaking my head continuously and ruffling my hair, I could also feel my cheeks getting hotter because of it.

In the end, I decided to stop playing my phone and drop any weird thoughts that I have before it gets weirder. I plug in my headset to my ears and decided to just listen to music until I fell asleep…