09. A Thing

Sandara did not remember how long her sleep lasted, if there were any nightmares or if she woke up in the middle of the night. The only thing, the only sense that was open in the morning was her hearing. Jenny was making too much noise, almost as if she was yelling from the other side of the room.

"Where in hell are you?" 

Dara ignored her and buried her heavy head in the pillow, not wanting to listen to her friend’s irritating and harsh morning voice, because she knew it would only give her a bad headache. Jenny liked to talk unnecessarily, and without an important meaning, so her friends tend to ignore her at most times.  

"Did you sleep at the library again!?" Couldn't Jenny just shut up? She knew that Dara from time to time would fall asleep at the library, due to exhaustion and overload of work, but had never made such a big fuss about it before.

"Who are you? And where is my girlfriend?" 

"She is sleeping." A hoarse male voice talked as Dara rubbed her swollen eyelids, and tried to force them open. The sudden sunlight hurt and she made annoyed and tired sounds, also because was hurting badly, as if it was chapped inside. Did she catch the flue because of the rain last night? 

“Oh, Jiyong?” She acknowledged and noticed that he was holding a phone, much similar to her black Iphone.

“And who are you?” Jenny’s voice said through the phone at the same time as her friend stumbled on the mattresses and rushed towards Jiyong, only to snap the phone out of his hand, suddenly nervous.

"H-hello?" 

"Park Sandara!!" Jenny roared in an angry teacher voice, but still with some mischievousness in the undertone. She was getting excited now that a man- for the first time in Sandara’s life had answered her phone as if he had legal rights to do that.

"Yeah?" Dara’s sore voice was barely audible and the mobster was looking at her with an amused expression, obliviously entertained by her “girlfriend”.

"Who the are you with?" 

Dara was stuttering, because the girl on the other side of the line was suddenly behaving like her mother who had caught her being with a boyfriend, something she wasn't really allowed to. "I -I."

“It’s a man!” Came her breathless and overly excited realization. “Who is he?! Is he your boyfriend, huh? Did you hide him from me all this time? Tsk, tsk, you little snobby- wait,” She paused for what seemed like a very long second. “Did you have !?” Jenny then screamed suddenly, making Sandara punch her face mentally as she desperately tried to turn off the speaker. Her blood was boiling in embarrassment when Jiyong reached out to the phone with a big grin on his face. 

“What if we did?” he asked her, only to receive an angry look from Sandara, before she snatched the phone back and told Jenny that she would see her soon.

Jiyong’s arms had already sneaked around her petite waist before she was able to disconnect the call, and she became shy and looked down at her bare feet. She totally did remember how she had accepted his proposal last night. There was no doubt that she had willingly agreed to give him a chance of showing her he could be something more than only a stalker of hers. Some kind of spirit makes me talk bull at night, and now was the time to take responsibility for my big mouth, thought the girl in confusion of her choices. 

“You haven't forgotten what you said last night, right?” He mumbled from behind, before placing a sweet kiss on her neck, leaving behind goose bumps. Maybe he was checking out how she would react. If she got angry, it would mean that she was denying the confession, so she stayed calm even though her heart raced with the speed of a horse in heat. 

“No..” Sandara whispered with a burning throat whilst fumbling nervously with the chain around his wrist. 

She got anxious and nervous when he turned her around and forced her to look him in the eyes.

“That's good then:” He said and kissed her tiny nose. His face was so angelic, and a relaxed and satisfied expression played along his features. He must be a morning person, thought Dara. His skin was bright and clean, and the stubble made him look y. The chocolate brown eyes were huge and his full lips had a shade of pink. Why can’t I be like you too, she envied absentmindly. 

 “I brought you some clothes” Jiyong said and showed the girl what he had picked. There was a blue blouse of silk and black skinny jeans.

“But how did you know my size?”

“I looked at your clothes from yesterday,” he explained and she realized that he wasn't in the sweatpants that they wore to sleep last night. His attire was now jeans and a white sweater with brown squares, which made him look absolutely fabulous. 

Sandara opened her bag and took out a toothbrush and toothpaste.

“You carry that with you?”

“Yeah, I kind of tend to fall asleep at the library sometimes.” She shrugged before leaving the room quietly to go and wash up. The store was about to open, since the workers were running back and forth, preparing for the opening

Jiyong was standing at the end of the room and looking outside of the window when Dara re-entered the room. He seemed lost in his thought when she walked up behind him and peeped over his shoulder to get a view of whatever was keeping him occupied. He surprised her by catching her arms and winding them around his waist- so that it seemed like she was hugging him form behind, just like he had done to her earlier. It felt good to be able to feel her head leaned on his wide and warm back. Sandara didn’t mind the action much, and unlike her usual self she didn’t even protest. Her feelings towards him had changed so much through one night that she wasn't even able to recognize herself. Maybe that was the effect of being done good to. When somebody does good to you, you just kind of start appreciating that person and respecting them.   

“You are ready?” He had a beat expression as he turned around and placed Dara’s palms on his chest. She nodded - her swollen eyes looking right into his. It had been hard to look at him in this way when he portrayed himself as the tough guy, but now that he had let out those harsh feelings and revealed his sweetness, Dara felt totally comfortable staring at him. Maybe she had lived her whole life the wrong way, always ignoring the heart and only focusing on the brain. Maybe now was the time to change that way, and rather decide by what the heart wanted. Her heart wanted to be with Jiyong. She felt like she owed him her life.

“Should we get going?” The clock was almost nine, which meant she had exactly half an hour to reach her first morning class. The night before was a hard one and it had broken her totally, but she had always believed in forgetting the past when a new day clicked in. The best thing would be to get back to her daily-life, and be busy, so she didn't have time to rethink the incident from yesterday. In addition, she didn’t want to go to her dorm and relive her memories of almost being , alone. She was scared, didn’t want to be alone for even a moment.

“Are you ready to go home?”

“No,” She shook her head hurriedly- fearing that thought. “I have classes.”

“Classes?” His forehead was creased as he listened to her explain that she was planning to attend university even in that state of hers. He wasn’t impressed much. “That’s not really a good idea, you should rest for a few days.”

“I don’t need to-“

“You need rest,” He protested harshly and gripped her hand. “Come on, we’re getting you home.”

“I don’t want to-“

“Just listen to me,” He sighed heavily, as if he was tired too. “Just listen this time, don’t argue.”

Sandara would’ve protested if he had said that under different circumstances, but since she felt so thankful- she couldn’t find herself denying his request. With a heavy heart and a restless mind, she accepted his suggestion and let him drive her to Campus.

The first thing the two lovebirds got to meet inside the Campus’ parking lot was an amazed Jenny, and an astonished Haera. Sandara gulped as both of her friends looked down at her and Jiyong’s intertwined hands, before letting their mouth fall out of place. Gosh, this was going to be a difficult morning.

Sandara tried releasing her tiny hand from Jiyong’s huge one, but he was not in the mood to let go of her just yet. He simply waved their intertwined hands back and forth, while his girlfriend was freaking out and hatching plans about how she could explain her situation to the two girls who were shooting daggers at her. When the mobster realized that his interest was focusing on something distant, he too let his eyes catch a look of what seemed to stress her out. One small smirk formed quickly on his lips as he started dragging Dara towards the two girls he acknowledged as her buddies.

Both confused girls put smiles, that didn’t quite reach their eyes fully when the boyfriend introduced himself and smiled like all of them were close acquaintances from long ago. Dara laughed nervously upon taking notice of the deathly stare Haera was sending her and she even wanted to bury herself ten metres down in the ground when Jenny grabbed her free arm and whispered naughty things in her ear, assuming that the guy next to her wasn’t able to catch up on their conversation.

“Did you or did you not have