004(2)

“Seung Hwan hyung misunderstood because he chose not to trust my judgment. There’s nothing strange to it: you’re my high school classmates college hoobae. I think you’re cool and that we should be friends hence I suggested that we lower our speeches and for you to call me something other than Chanyeol-ssi. Because I don’t like it.  Since I’m the oldest I asked. That’s just it. If someone misunderstands it’s their problem, really.”

She was about to reply when her tummy ached and growled in disapproval of her food withdrawal – it seemed like her appetite had somehow returned all at once and Ji Woo was suddenly blushing through the roots of her hair because that had been so damn embarrassing after Chanyeol’s serious words. But he didn’t seem bothered by being cut off by her stomach at all, instead the amusement on his lips and playful eyes put the loud laughter that followed in context.

Her cheeks heated so fast and harshly she was sure she was looking like a traffic light. Ironically, the thought of stop listening to him and follow her own words never crossed her mind. Once more she couldn’t resist his charm and found herself calling him Oppa mentally.

He seemed to find her blush endearing when he smiled, softly now, towards her again (after almost bending over with laughter).

“Haven’t you eaten?”

“No…I… actually the last time I remember eating was yesterday.” Her demeanor turned pensive abruptly and he stopped laughing immediately.

“Are you serious?”

“yeah, I… I get really nervous before contests. Eating isn’t such a good idea. Besides, I spent the whole day in the piano.”

Why in the world was her temperature not lowering? Was it because it was so embarrassing telling Chanyeol that she was a little obsessed before concerts and that she forgot all about her surroundings? Was it perhaps the concern filled features of his face as he regarded her carefully while softly dragging his tall body towards the table where she had decided to flee to?

Chanyeol retrieved his iphone from his dress pants and quickly typed in something for a while. He was now standing before her, across the table but his eyes didn’t touch her. When he finished typing he pulled a chair and sat while she remained standing, looking down at his puzzling actions. His hand immediately caressed the crystal of her new award and she gulped suddenly, it only now occurred her that to be here he had probably watched the recital and, specifically, her performance. Her saliva got suddenly thicker.

“Last time I asked you to show me your work.”

“Did you….see?”

“Yeah…I did”

His response was so much more of a breath than a proper word that she blinked to look at him again, forgetting the way her bottom lip had been lodged between her teeth in apprehension of what he thought of her performance.

“Did you not like it?”

“I…” Chanyeol stopped for a moment unfurling the frown over his beautiful eyes and smiling openly to her as if her question just hadn’t been registered. “What do you like? Seolleongtang or Soondubu jjigae?”

“What?”

“I ordered food! What do you prefer? I like the both”

“But- you really didn’t need to, I… I need to get back to the reception.”

“Not before you eat, you don’t.”

“But how are going to…”

“Oh, don’t worry Baekhyun will order and make sure they deliver here at the door.”

“Oppa, really there’s no need to…”

“So what do you prefer?”

She gulped down her uneasiness. In truth his gesture was something that really made her happy. Even though she tried not to show it much Ji Woo really had a soft spot for people who took care of others. This was how Yeon Woo Oppa had forst come to her attention. The way he had ordered food as soon as she mentioned she hadn’t eaten in a long time without even asking and as now completely disregarding her refutation of the need to do so made her feel really taken care of and happy, it really did leave her content.

“I… Soondubu jjigae.”

“Really? Wah~~ We really match because I really wanted the Seolleongtang! I’m still dying from the Teokkbokki we had three days ago and that was the spiciest thing I ever had.”

She giggled cutely.

“Don’t you like spicy food?”

“I do!!” he asserted quickly. “But Sehun and Kai thought it was funny to just drop the whole flask of pepper flakes inside.”

She sat very slowly, her hands open and splayed on the soft wood of the table. Assessing the situation as if calculating simple math Ji Woo reasoned that the reception had just begun and that it would probably last for long time. Most of the contestants had someone accompany them and probably wouldn’t be returning to the dressing room though she couldn’t be absolutely sure about the girl who shared this specific room with her. Though Chanyeol had his group member outside, for her part… it was ok to stay here and talk for a little longer. After all, this was the person she had so often thought of for the past weeks. After all… he had just bought her food right?

“It must be nice”

Chanyeol was both taken aback and confused by her remark. Ji Woo was pretty sure that he was going to start complaining about his housemates with that teasing smile pulling at his pink lips but she had disrupted him and instead spoke to him softly with a earnest smile as she rested the underside of her chin in a pretty little folded hand.

“What?”

“To live with so many friends… all the time. It must be really lively.”

“In fact, I’d say it’s dirty loud and annoying, but yeah… we have our moments.”

With the same hand folded in a fist that had been her chin’s support, Ji Woo hid her subtle crystalline titter.

“I think it must be really nice. I’m almost always at home alone. Unnie is almost always in the hospital… she stays there a lot since she still hasn’t ended her residency. It’s nice because I can play the piano without bothering her at all. And when she’s home, unnie likes to hear me play.”

“Yeah… I can get why she does.”

“Uh…” her pink reddish lips opened slightly, looking lazily back at him, somewhat contemplatively though her expression was not unpleasant. Sudden, a smile broke out again, a small no teeth showing smile as she gathered the scarf tighter against her body and rested her chin on both of her folded fists. “You still haven’t told me… if you liked it.”

“I t-thought it was breathtaking.” His voice was so raspy and low that it echoed off of the walls straight into her ears and into a space in her chest that got just a little constricted with it. “Though I don’t understand much… I thought you did it beautifully.”

Her cheeks filled up with hotness again and this time she hid them by sliding her face downwards and peeking up from behind her hands, across the table at Chanyeol who though he seemed sheepish at his previous words, was now basking in mirth as he enjoyed the effect of his complement on Ji Woo.

“Are you blushing?”

“Ahh! Oppa~!”

Silence.

Like the first time she had used a lower form of speech with him on the spur of the moment, there was a sudden tension between them, though this time she felt that it was not only surprise surging in his dark brown irises. Instead there was something fiercer. And then he broke out in a eccentric grin once more, reaching over to her face with his long arms and pressing her hot cheeks together.

“Cute.” Appraising her opinion on the matter Chanyeol confirmed that she did not look utterly chocked or angry with his sudden skinship and confirming so, smiled again, abandoning her face with a soft caress on her left cheek. “What was it that you played?”

“Chopin Nocturne Op.9 nr. 3… the non famous one.”

“I bet you think you can make it famous.”

“Tch. I could make all of the Notturne famous.”

He laughed lightheartedly with a kind crinkle to his eyes

“You sound like Jung Hyung Don hyung”

Pause.

“I’m sorry, who?”

“Wah… even ahjummas know this person, Ji Woo-yah. Have you never watched variety on TV?”

Abruptly pulled from, again, musing about his comfortable skinship she blinked at him, a little confused with what he was saying… If she watched TV?

“I…” and here she went again, admitting the truth could only mean she was going to get even weirder. A healthy Korean female that knew nothing about idols wasn’t that uncommon, but a person who didn’t even watch TV? Biting her lips and looking downwards at her own hands resting atop her lap, she cleared her lodged throat before speaking softly, looking aside. “Not really.”

Chanyeol didn’t speak. And even though she was looking everywhere but at him, the smaller pianist could still feel his gaze on her. Sensing it as an encouragement to detail her awkward admission, Ji Woo cleared again, but this time she looked straight ahead at him, from under her shy sensuous lashes.

“I just… I don’t get much of it and… you know, if I had time to watch television then I would be playing piano. I don’t just play it because it’s work. Even in my moments of leisure my fingers are always aching to play. Even if it’s the same piece through a year, I don’t mind playing it all day long as long as I can improve myself.”

Her coy words seem to register very slowly on him as if they were a piece of paper sinking against the pressure of the water. He just looked at her for what it seemed to be a long time, but it really wasn’t. His emotions about what she just said to him appeared conflicted on the features of his face.

“So… ever since you learned to play the piano, you never had hobbies? Every single moment you had was dedicated to it?”

Ji Woo’s serious and embarrassed face turned pensive as she thought over on his words.

“Well, I read a lot too. I like languages too so I learned some… on my own thus I don’t have a certificate or anything like that. Sometimes I compose but I don’t think I’m that far ahead already –”

“Really? What can you speak?”

“Well Korean and German, obviously. I learned French in school and English too. Ever since I came to Korea I’ve been studying Mandarin.”

“You speak five languages?” his impressed exclamation made her feel a little awkward but, nonetheless, proud. She smiled a little and nodded to which he laughed out loud, almost doubled with laughter racking his body. “I’m seriously telling you that your blind-date resume rocks!”

She laughed along sharply with her crystalline giggles that made him abandon his own vanishing chuckles and the remnants of his cheeky grin turn into an endearing smile. He watched her for a while until her  own chukles subsided into nothing. How was silence no awkward for the both of them, Ji Woo couldn’t know. She only knew that there was no tension or weirdness setting along the table that separated them, it was oddly comfortable.

“Actually….”

“Oh?” he still hadn’t gotten over her calling him that again and it clearly made him feel nice because he got a little flustered everytime he heard it. “What is it?”

“Won’t I look weird eating jjigae in this outfit? I think I should change.”

He visibly gulped while looking away with a little less subtlety than what he had aimed for.

 “I…should I leave?”

“Ah…Its ok, I think. There’s a folding screen here, since the room is shared sometimes, just…” she looked away in shyness as well, though he wasn’t looking exactly at her but rather at some point over her shoulder, a shade of light pink dusting the bridge of his high nose and cheeks. “Just don’t look.”

He heard her tiny voice and nodded sharply just facing the exact opposite of the place where the folding screen she had pointed at was and grabbed his cell phone. She nodded a thank you and, visibly embarrassed, grabbed a bag from the couch in the room and hurried to the back of the room where the folding screen could hide her from Chanyeol’s presence.

As soon as she got behind the thick paper screen, Ji Woo almost screamed into her hand in frustration… What the hell was wrong with her? In fact, that was exactly the question the lean girl asked herself mutely when she reached her zipper on her right hip. Why was she changing clothes with Chanyeol in the room when she should be going back to the reception? How did the prospect of having Soondubu jjigae beat the opportunity to have meaningful and enthralling conversations with professionals of her field of work?

Well, it wasn’t that hard; she scoffed internally, carefully doubling the pale dress over the top of the folding screen while she reached for socks from inside the bag she had just reached for – since between those interesting conversations there would be malicious gazes (though they had decreased a lot, from her teenagehood), people asking about her parents and other who were just utterly ignorant about music but still came, a little like Chanyeol out there, except they came to show off their wealth, bribing the doors of art open to claim a sit at Seoul’s most elite tables.

But still, she found herself wishing desperately for that stew to come and eat with him, actually share a meal with the person she had thought of so much for the last weeks. Seldom had been the thought she spared the person she had admitted herself she liked. He had never come, even when he knew that she was here. He had never stepped forward. She had never asked him to but… well, she didn’t even tell Chanyeol where it was and he had still appeared, right?

Chastising herself for the comparison and asking herself what she was thinking while slightly tapping her temple with the inside of her wrists and adjusting the fit of the thick woolen sweater that threatened to fall over her thin and bony shoulder, suddenly berating herself for bringing such crappy clothes to change into at the end of the reception. Under it she was wearing and even bigger and longer cotton strap top that almost came to her knees covered with hot leggings. She looked as if she was just hanging out at home and laughing a little she realized how discouraging this was. And then she found herself smiling because maybe, if she felt like at home,