Published: 10 - 01 - 2016

There would be a couple of set changes. Just bear with me, we can hold this together :D

Enjoy^^

---

 

He hated to admit, but after all of those incidents, Jaesuk’s daily routine wasn’t exactly useful as then.

In the morning, he usually took a walk around the neighborhood. Sometimes he continued to the local gym, if he was on the mood. After that he would buy a breakfast at the nearby restaurant and ate it back at his condo. If the day wasn’t busy with CF contracts and other stuff, he would just stay at home and clean off. By the end of the day, he would find himself watching some dramas and movies. That was how he lived over the past few weeks.

So when he received a message from his dongsaeng about a party invitation, he couldn’t help but to feel slightly lazy.

Not long after he cleaned off, his cellphone rang. Still covered in towels only, he grunted at the caller ID. He already knew why he called him, definitely. But he answered it anyway.

“Kwangsoo-yah? Ah waeyo?”

“Ani hyung, I just want to know if you have received my message. What do you think, hyung?”

“Yah, I haven’t read the message yet. I just off to shower,” Jaesuk sighed, knowing it was unwise, “What is it about?”

“Deanna-nuna invites us to watch Running Man episodes together at her apartment. You know, she just moved in to Seoul recently. It’s kind of a housewarming thing,” Kwangsoo told him, “Are you going to come, hyung?”

“I’m not sure. When is it?”

“On Wednesday evening. I know that Gary cannot come because he will record a song for his album. What about you, hyung? Confirmed?”

“This Wednesday? She recorded the episodes?”

“I think so. From what I heard she has prepared a lot. You know, she really wants us to come.”

“I know. But let me check my schedule first. I’m still not sure. I’ll confirm it tomorrow.”

“Arasseo, I’ll wait. Take your time, hyung. Take care!”

“Ne,” with that Jaesuk felt like a complete .

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to come. He did. But if he could be honest, to him, this was not his first priority. But then again, what priorities he had?

Helping Jiho with homework—no, he did not do that anymore.

If he didn’t come to the party, what would he do on Wednesday evening? Probably just stayed at home, watching TV programs.

He realized that things were changed in front of his very eyes. He realized that. But he just couldn’t leave the fact that he didn’t do what he used to do, for six years straight. And that still hurt him.

He was trying to wake up to the reality, but his eyes just didn’t want to open up to the world.

But after few days, he gave a try though.

“Good afternoon, Jihyo-yah?”

“Good afternoon, oppa. What is it that you suddenly call me?”

“Nothing important. I heard that we are all invited to Deanna’s party? Are you coming?”

“Yes. I’m intended to come. Waeyo?”

“He he, Jihyo-yah?”

“Wae?”

“Can you help me with this?”

“Ah wae oppa?”

“I’m actually on my way to the convenient store. I want to present a gift for Deanna. Care to help me?”

“Oh ha ha ha! To be honest, I’m having a hard time to buy something for her too,” Jihyo laughed at the other side of the line, “But I do know that she likes awkward things. A decoration perhaps?”

“Ah geurae. Let me find something weird and awkward for her. Ne, gomawo Jihyo-yah!”

“Aniya, no problem. Happy searching!”

Awkward things, hmm. What a taste of her liking, he thought. He chuckled as he arrived at the store. Soon he already parked his car and entered the decoration area.

As usual people undoubtedly recognized him and began asking for photos and autographs. All of that annoyed him sometimes, especially when he was in a hurry. But as a professional he handled it with manners and took some poses and signs for them.

That wasn’t the only thing that annoyed him. The references; awkward things, wasn’t much helping. Whenever he asked about some awkward stuff, it came out as useless things; like a glowing bidet or wiggly toys. He smiled at the lady and politely declined her choice. But inside he was laughing crazily.

In the end, he bought some stuff for his house instead.

 

***

 

Jaesuk wasn’t the only one that worried too much of things. Back at the newly bought apartment, Deanna was doing so hard to prepare everything she might need during the housewarming party.

Actually she already held the similar party on Sunday. But she only invited her family and some friends, who were mostly foreigners. It went well, since she was capable of doing parties on weekends back at the US. Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, New Year; you named, she had done it.

However, when the guests were some TV personalities she had just met recently, she was nervous as hell. She didn’t know them, what they liked, what they didn’t like, what was acceptable, what was too much for them... Her mind out.

Due to that, she asked for Kwangsoo’s assistance to organize things. Kwangsoo might not be the best person to organize a party, but nonetheless he helped a lot.

So exactly at five p.m., the first ringing of her apartment’s bell occurred. Stood there Jihyo and Kwangsoo, looking way more casual then she thought which also overwhelmed her. At the last minute she decided to rip off her maxi dress and changed it to a simpler pair of sweater and jeans.

As the others started to come along, she couldn’t help but to notice how formal yet casual they acted, compared to her wild drinking buddies. That embarrassed her a bit, but she decided to enjoy the evening with them; with a new group of people.

Even though they were still short for two members of the Running Man, Gary couldn’t come because his album and Jaesuk seemed to get caught in the traffic, she decided to watch the episodes. Thanked God, they haven’t watched the episodes or it would be a total pain in the .

So Jaesuk told the truth about editing. The talk about her ex and other personal conversations in the bus were skipped completely, giving a sign of relief. She also liked the fact that PD had used her favorite songs as her theme song. One more thing she learned now to prove that TV made someone looked bigger than the real body. She looked much, much taller compare to the guys.

In the middle of the movie, her doorbell rang on the speaker. There he was, wearing a simple polo shirt and jeans, stood in front of the door, looking dandy as usual.

“Am I too late to come? Mianhae.”

“Ah oppa, you made it! Please, do come in!”

“Thank you for inviting me—whoa!”Jaesuk looked around the apartment eyes wide opened in surprised, “This is....”

“Small?” Deanna laughed, remembered seeing the same confused expression she had seen from five different people, “I know. I get that a lot.”

“I mean... You are... Wah! I didn’t just see this!”

“Yah hyung, we all had that same look on our face,” Jongkook exclaimed, “I still cannot believe till now.”

“No offence but it’s you! I mean, I thought it was going to be big,” Jaesuk shook his head in amazement, “It’s minimalistic—yah!!”

Immediately a chubby, wrinkled English Bulldog sprinted out and sniffed Jaesuk’s leg. He almost kicked him, but it made him laughed. “This big guy scares me.”

“Yeah. This two-year old, fat ugly dog,” Deanna kneeled down to rub him on the back, “Is Burger. Oppa, try to shake hands with him.”

“Burger-ah annyeong!!” Jaesuk kneeled down and stuck his hand out. It took only a few sniff and Burger raised his short legs to touch Jaesuk’s hand, “Whoa, he is smart!”

“Jinjja aegyo! Oh my god!!” Haha squealed like a little boy and carried Burger on his arms, “And you’re so heavy!”

“Now I wonder why you like awkward things,” Jaesuk chuckled, still looking at the dongsaeng playing with Burger, “Awkward is cute.”

“Awkward is cute! I couldn’t agree more!” Deanna smiled and nodded in agreement.

 

***

 

A couple of days later, a very tight schedule were born into the scene to welcome her back to the world of modeling business.

At eight o’clock in the morning, she had a shoot for an updated clothing brand campaign in Seoul. This was definitely a piece of cake for her, but it was pretty overwhelming still to be part of the ritual all over again.

She let all the artist glammed up her face with lots of make-ups. She then squeezed her body inside the amazing and expensive clothes. And she stood in front of the camera, striking beautiful poses.

After that, she put on yet another make-up. She changed into the second outfit. And continued with what she does best in front of the camera.

Then, more brushes swept onto her face. Catching some clothes to wear. Smiled to the camera.

Make-ups. Clothes. Poses.

But it didn’t stop there. After Deanna had satisfied the owner’s need, she continued her journey till the end of the day.

She and her friends drove away to Incheon to attend a contract meeting for a runaway show being held about few weeks in time. Deanna would be joining other models on the runaway as a special guest of the show. But right now she was watching how the main models walked.

There, she met a good friend, Song Kyungah, who was going to be on the runaway with her. She was also part of Running Man guest and so they hung out for lunch, sharing experiences and stories. It was a good time-break for her busy hours.

At three p.m. she drove south back to Seoul. Her final work was a shooting for a CF project for a perfume company. It was going to be a one-time shoot, meant that all of the scenes had to be done on that day. She didn’t mind, though. This was one of those challenges as a model and she had done few one-time CFs like this one. She also found out that her part wasn’t as much.

During the break of the shooting, she got herself a message from an unknown number.

Is this Deanna Kim’s number?

She wasn’t sure if it was an agency’s number, or a fan, or some stalker perhaps. Still being cautious, she answered the message.

After a while, there weren’t any replies from that number. She soon thought of it as a text-prank. That was until that particular number decided to call her.

“Uh hello?”

“Ah, Deanna-ssi? Am I disturbing you at the moment?”

“Jaesuk-ssi?!” The surprise expression would never leave her face, “Whoa, I didn’t see this coming. How are you, oppa? How did you know my number?”

“I’m fine, thank you. And I asked Kwangsoo about your number, if you don’t mind.”

“Ani, gwenchanayo. It’s good to hear you, oppa. So what’s up?”

“Are you home this evening?”

“Hmm?” Deanna squeaked out a silent outburst. She blinked, once, twice, trying to digest what she heard, “Sure. I’ll be at home at seven, perhaps. Waeyo oppa?”

“No, nothing. I just want to visit you tonight. That’s all.”

“Oh,” Deanna blinked again, regaining herself with the sudden confirmation.

“Deanna-ssi, do you mind?”

“Does this have anything to do with Running Man? With all respect oppa, I don’t like random people barge in to my house,” She answered rather skeptically, “I remembered what happened to Kwangsoo’s house.”

“Yah! Ha ha ha! He was really mad about it,” Jaesuk laughed from the other side of the line, “And don’t worry. We are not filming any episodes now.”

“Alright,” Deanna nodded to herself, “I guess you can drop by then. I’ll be at home at seven—,”

“Miss Kim, we are ready for the next scene,” A staff came by and told her so. Deanna nodded to him and replied a short ‘just a minute’ respond.

“Dea-ssi, are you busy now? What are you doing?”

Deanna was caught off guard by the sudden nickname he got her. It pleased her somehow, “I’m at the studio for a CF shoot. I’m sorry oppa, but I have to cut this call.”

“I understand. Good luck with the CF. Take care, have a nice day!”

At the end of the day, she succeeded to shoot some scenes in one-shot only. It was a relief, knowing that she just needed to go home to call it a day. But the mystery of Yoo Jaesuk’s phone call had just begun.

So she decided to come home earlier, like half an hour earlier. She drove down back to her apartment, not to forget to pick up Burger from the local pet shelter. It was hell of a day and she needed to clean up really badly.

Speaking of cleaning, she had some unfinished business at home. Over the past few days, she had to set all of her portraits on the wall. But with all the parties, jobs, and some other things to be done, there weren’t any times to manage that. Yesterday, she had all the frames bought and all pictures printed out. And this morning, all the nails on the wall were already set.

About a half an hour later, exactly at three minutes past seven, her doorbell rang. She took a peek at the screen and déjà vu all over again. There he was, dressed up nicely with a pair of shirt and jeans.

“Deanna-ssi, shall we meet again now?” Stood there Yoo Jaesuk with the bright smile on his face as if never disappeared.

“Annyeong, oppa! It’s good to see you again. Do come in, oppa!” Deanna took a few steps back to let him in.

But instead Jaesuk waved off and turned around to grab something leaning lazily on the wall nearby.

“Oppa, what’s that?”

“I realized that I haven’t got you something on Wednesday. So, this is to repay it. I hope you’ll like it.”

“Ah oppa, you don’t have to—,”

“Yah! You think I didn’t notice that look in your face when you got all the gifts? Ha! You cannot fool me, kid.” Jaesuk snickered jokingly.

“Hey, am I too obvious?” Deanna snorted out giggles, before gesturing her arms to take the gift, “Thanks oppa—,”

However Jaesuk moved it away, “Ani. Let me. Where should I put this?”

It was true though. When she saw the wrapped-up gift next to him, she was delighted. Not only that, the fact the gift was quite big and seemed to be heavy made her squealed inside like a little girl in a candy store.

“Yah! What are you doing with your house?!” Jaesuk caught a glimpse of a pile of frames took the space of her couch, “Are those frames?”

Deanna looked around and chucked in annoyance, “Yeah, I still need to assemble things... I’m sorry, it’s a mess.”

“To be honest, my house is still messier than this.”

“Pardon?”

“Ani, dwesseo. Anyway, do you need a hand with all of those?”

“Ah jinjja? If you don’t mind, that’d be great, oppa.”

What was supposed to be a simple drop off suddenly turned out to be more than that. As now Jaesuk found himself setting frames by frames in place on the wall and on the tables. He wanted to admit but he was pretty dazed with all the wonderful pictures of hers, but he decided to keep it in his mind.

The two soon talked about things and chatted about stuff, mostly about what she did that day, her photoshoot, her CF, and so on. He didn’t get the weird words she said, like fashion brands, magazines, runaway project; all of those things entered his right ear and walked out from the other one. But it was nice to listen to other activity other than variety show.

With all the talks and chit-chats and some snacks, they didn’t realize that the clock had already set almost at nine. As if on cue, Jaesuk spotted Deanna yawning quietly at the background. He understood, suddenly feeling like a total prick. To barge in with a cheap present he found at a thrift shop and cutting her time to take a rest. He decided to call it a day and bid goodbye to her.

Nevertheless, he had got something for her, something awkward and cute. His mission was pretty much completed. And now he didn’t have anything to bother other than a good drive back to his home.

 

***

 

He was reading a message, but not just any other message.

It all started with a simple text from her, expressing gratitude for the gift he gave her a while ago. But then the messages grew up and reluctantly turned into a certain habit of asking each other’s lives. There were times when they went beyond that, like sending random pictures and videos about their daily routine.

Back and forth, they had been building up bond over the past couple of days every early morning and late night.

So when Running Man filming was on a break, Yoo Jaesuk decided to continue the ongoing chat from yesterday’s silent conversation.

J: Hello again. Just so you know, we were just done with RM opening scene, taking a break rn. How are you?

Jaesuk couldn’t help but feeling much younger with the used of message slangs such as and rn and so on. He even added an emoji to complete the package before sending it. In a count of four, a message arrived.

D: Dying of waiting the boss. Any guests today?

J: Ye. Lee Dongwook, Park Seojun, and Yura Girl’s Day.

J: We’re doing this college theme and part-time jobs.

D: Jinjja?!!! Dongwook-oppa is there? Haven’t seen him since ages. Send my merong to him :p

D: And what jobs you have to do?

J: I’m not sure. We’re about to go to the next location. Btw, what are you doing now?

D: Just prepping up. I have to go to meet up some agencies for a contract. And to the vet, Burger is sick:(

J: Oh nooooo, uljima:( Burger-ah, I hope he will get better!!

That was a bit cheesy for his taste of texting. He couldn’t help but feel slightly cheap.

D: Thankss oppa! Im going to mute my phone, brb!

J: I wish you good luck n fighting!!

D: Fighting!!

That was what mostly they chatted about. Even though they’d never actually been on the phone, but it sounded like a genuine talk between two persons. A simple random text was enough to make a friendship improvement.

Jaesuk couldn’t help but to smile as he bragged about texting her to everyone, especially Dongwook since she already asked.

 

***

 

On the other side, Deanna frowned deeper than an Atlantic Ocean, if it was possible. But how could she not?! Not only had she got a rejection from the agency, but the head designer proudly smacked down her reputation in front of everyone else.

So she decided to cut the crap and flanked off the room and went elsewhere. She needed something to relax. After almost punched him in the face, she definitely needed something to cool off her boiling nerves.

It took a while to wait for her friends to come out from the room, but nevertheless they did. Deanna was still mad at the heated scene early on, but she managed to wear it off her mind. And now she found herself walking to 7-Eleven at the side of the road, following her friends, Louijah and Michelle.

(Eng-based conv.)

“Dea, I cannot believe he said all of that to you!” Lou exclaimed between the rows of snacks, “What an !”

“I know. New day, new ,” Deanna shrugged, grabbing two bottles of coke.

“Hey don’t say that! No matter how he was he’ll be our future success,” Michelle butted in, only to get a snort from Deanna.

“Ha. My future success. Please!” Deanna chuckled heavily, getting a short grunt from the other two, “I’ll pass on that one.”

Louijah just rolled his eyes as he dashed off to the cashier counter. Meanwhile Michelle set a hard glare and a frown on her face, “Why did you say that?”

“What do you mean by why? I’m not going to waste my energy just to impress him. He doesn’t even like me! Ain’t changing, baby,” Deanna did a short dougie dance before following Lou to the counter, “After all he is an .”

“But hun, this is huge!”

“Michelle, cut it. I don’t wanna hear it anymore. I just wish you both a good luck,” Deanna shrugged it out and turned to the cashier, “Can I have two packs of cigars please? That one.”

“Well maybe if you stopped smoking, he would hate you less.” Louijah spoke out, still busy with his phone.

“Yeah I’m trying though,” chuckling, Deanna paid all things she would buy to the cashier behind the machine, who looked slightly familiar, but too strange to recognize.

“Keep the change. Thanks.”

“Gamsahabnida. Have a nice day—yeah!! I did it!!”

(K-based conv.)

Deanna was about to exit the store but when the strange cashier-man yelled out, she abruptly turned back to the counter. And so she stood there, scanning every single detail about him.

“Kwangsoo-yah?!”

“Nuna!! Jinjja gamsahaeyo!! Ah jinjja, I thought I was going to fail.”

“Waeyo?” Deanna just looked at him in a very suspicious way. But when she spotted a FD appeared from the storage room, she couldn’t help but laugh, “Ah Running Man!”

“Aigo nuna! We have to go undercover and work as the cashier. Didn’t realize it was me all the time?! Ah jinjja?!”

“I-I didn’t... I-I-I didn’t... What exactly happened Kwangsoo-yah?” Deanna frowned at the sudden exaggerate outburst from the dongsaeng.

But to be honest, that wasn’t mainly why she frowned.

Soon she was brought upstairs to meet up with the others. She got a nice warming hug from Dongwook, but she noticed how people up there seemed to keep some distance after watching her buying things; buying two particular things.

And when she was about bid good bye and came back down, Kwangoo asked if he could talk to her alone. What he said was something very serious that made her heart dwelled in disappointment.

And Jaesuk couldn’t help but to notice that.

 

***

 

That lonely night, her cellphone rang, vibrating vigorously on the surface of the table. Deanna sighed and moved Burger away from her lap and got her phone on. It was Yoo Jaesuk.

“Deanna-ssi, am I bothering you?”

“No, no. I’m just watching TV with Burger. I don’t have anything else to do. How’s filming, oppa?”

“The filming went well, actually. You should watch, you’re in it.”

“Eh, of course oppa! I still can’t believe I didn’t recognize Kwangsoo. I was just buying—,” Deanna silently gasped, stopping the word. She just let out a sigh and shook her head, “Yeah, and the next thing I knew Kwangsoo was there.”

There was a silent filling the whole scene awkwardly, followed by a rough noise coming from the other side of the line.

“Deanna-ssi, gwenchanayo?”

“Ne oppa, gwenchana,”

“Uh, PD-nim will cut that moment, just so you know.”

“Glad to hear that, gamsahabnida. Are you still on set?”

“No. I’m on the way home actually. Almost arrive.”

“Oh I see. Maybe I should hang up now. You’re driving, oppa,”

“Agaesso,” Jaesuk’s honking sound was heard, “Yah Deanna-yah?”

“Ne?”

“If you want to talk about something, or if you need any help, call me anytime.”

“Sure thing. Take care, oppa,” and so she hung up.

Either that should’ve made her felt more relaxed or the opposite, she was glad to get a phone-call from him. She did need help actually... To fix things.

But how on earth she supposed to help herself, when she was smoking right then in the living room while watching TV, while she got the phone? Since she was moody that day, after what happened early on that morning, all the agency and stuff, it was getting worse. This cigar she had was the second of the night.

Hell, she was very disappointed of herself.

She was so disappointed of herself that she didn’t pay attention to a barking dog on the main door. When she looked closer, Burger was barking at the small screen on the wall. A man, a very familiar man was standing on the other side of the door.

“Jaesuk-oppa?!”

“Sorry I came so sudden. Do I bother you?”

“N-n-no. Come in, please,” Deanna couldn’t help but widened her eyes wherever he went, “Don’t say that you come here right after filming!”

“Okay I won’t,” Jaesuk smiled, seeing Deanna’s priceless expression changed into several of other expression, still showing a complete daze of confusion.

To be honest, it was accidental. At the toll, unfortunately, he was taking a wrong way out. And it directed to the area where she lived. So, why couldn’t he just drop by? Especially after he knew that she had gone through a lot today.

After Deanna left the convenient store, Jaesuk asked Kwangsoo a simple ‘what’s up?’ and he just puked out every single thing about her. From her deep addiction to her failing reputation, he told him all.

Career wise, Jaesuk knew he couldn’t contribute much useful help other than ‘fighting!’ but when he saw that she bought the packs and heard from Kwangsoo, it was like a history played all over again.

He remembered, when they were watching Kwangsoo from the screen, all of the cast were shocked when she asked two packs of it.  Dongwook was more surprised than shocked. Jaesuk soon concluded that Dongwook already knew her smoking problem.

Since then he surfed the internet about any news about her smoking problem. And there were many of it. How she started, how she was breaking down, her lung infection, and so on; he read them very carefully.

If buying packs wasn’t enough to prove, coming to her house was like seeing it live. The first thing he smelled was a familiar smokey burn scent running around the living room. Not only that, but her breath smelled the same thing as well. And to make it real, there were two rusty cigars, one was longer and still lit on, inside the small pot. It all made sense now.

“Mianhae oppa, my house is a mess. I haven’t cleaned up—oh!” she also seemed to notice the inside of the pot on the table and desperately tried to hide it, “I’m so sorry—,”

But Jaesuk stopped her, “Ani, gwenchana Dea-ssi. Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh.”

“Why don’t... Why don’t you just sit down for a bit?” Jaesuk, who was now having Burger on his lap, stretched out lazily, taking the breath in, “Wow, I’m almost forgot how smoke smells. It has been a while.”

Hearing that, Deanna furrowed her brows, “Do you smoke too?”

“Andwae.”

“Ah of course not—,”

“But I used to smoke.”

“Oh, that’s new. When did you stop?”

“Couple of years ago, in 2011-ish. I remembered I used to share one pack with Haha after early days of Running Man filming,” Jaesuk smirked as he recalled those days.

“Haha too? That, I did not see that coming.”

“Yah, there are a lot of things you don’t know about us,” He chuckled, rubbing Burger’s fat stomach. He grumbled in pleasure.

“Why did you guys stop?” Deanna put on a sharp gaze directing straight into his eyes, “Bad rep?”

“Hmm, bad reputation? Not really, no. Haha maybe,” Jaesuk told her, “Haha once had to deal with some incredibly tough comments about his smoking behavior.”

“Like?”

“Like how opposite his habit was compared to the childish character on Running Man. At that time, kids loved him as Haroro. It’s weird to have Haroro smoking.”

“Yeah, I cannot imagine it either,” She let out a deep brief laugh, “And what about you, oppa?”

“Business mainly. But there are also other factors why I decided to quit smoking. Like my physical condition; you already know how tiring Running Man is.”

“Very!”

“Imagine you have to do that for five years now,” he took a sip of his orange juice, “Reputation wise, I don’t seem to have problems about it.”

“Well yeah, I mean people love you no matter what. You’re the Nation MC,” She couldn’t help but to roll her eyes and huffed, “So, how did you do get out of... This?”

Jaesuk watched when Deanna started to randomly throw and catch a pack up and down; a glimpse of a defeated woman desperately trying to survive.

“Trust me, oppa, I’ve tried so many things and so many ways. I just—,” Deanna paused, already balled up in to a tight fist as if ready to punch. And so she punched the leather couch instead, “Damn it!!”

Few moments later, Deanna cooled off, now sitting helplessly on the floor. As soon as she noticed how red her knuckles were, her hands became numb. She took deep breath, trying to reconnect to her current surrounding.

Sat there Jaesuk, holding Burger close for his dear life; she immediately frowned deeper hugged her knees.

Jaesuk’s mouth disappeared into a straight line for a second, didn’t know what to do. When he saw Deanna started to cry louder, he couldn’t help but to feel uncomfortable. He then realized that she wasn’t going to stop in any time soon. So he, uncomfortably, decided to calm her down by rubbing and massaging her arm.

“Hey. You know, I sometimes cry out loudly until I fall asleep.”

Deanna was now sobbing slower. Her red and watery eyes looked up slightly to him, “Waeyo?

“Just so you know, crying is okay,” Jaesuk said it out loud, “After the divorce, I was so broken that I cried until my eyes hurt.”

“Really?” She asked quietly. He nodded in return, “Do you still cry at night now?”

“Well, I have my moment.”

“Ah oppa mianhae.”

Jaesuk almost jumped away when a cold yet smooth hand held his own. The first thing he saw was a nail-art decorating her hand nicely. All colors were there, complementing each other in an attractive way. His eyes trailed to a distinctive black patterened mark across her wrist to her elbow. He didn’t notice she had a tattoo. Beauty.

“I didn’t know you have a tattoo.” He stated.

“Oppa, there are a lot of things you don’t know about me.” Deanna slowly smirked wider, making Jaesuk smiled in please.

“If that’s so, why don’t we get to know each other better,” Jaesuk told her, “As a matter of fact, I’ll come to Jiho’s school event on Tuesday. You want to come?”

“Huh?! Me?”

“No, I was talking to Burger, here,” Jaesuk loudly snorted and patted Burger’s head, “Actually Burger can come along as well.”

“Aniyo, I mean... Really? Why me?”

“I don’t know. It just came up to my mind. Are you free on Tuesday?” he paused, “That’s if you want to.”

“Not like that, but—,”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. It’s not a big deal,” Jaesuk shrugged, “Just don’t smoke there.”

“No, I mean—yah oppa!!” Deanna pushed him away, eyes wide opened.

“Alright I was just joking,” Jaesuk chuckled out loud, seeing her face. She frowned in a brief moment, but soon giggled along, “And the smile is back!”

Deanna flustered red and smacked Jaesuk’s arm playfully, “Oh stop it.”

“He! Nevermind. So Tuesday?”

After much deliberation, she nodded her head.

 

***

 

Yoo Jaesuk was worried sick. A lot of things came into his mind all at once.

What if Deanna couldn’t make it in time? What if she couldn’t make it at all? What if she didn’t want to come?

And if she did come, what if she didn’t like this crowded park full of noisy children? What if she didn’t even like kids? What if she didn’t like Jiho? What if Jiho didn’t like her?

“Appa, are you waiting for someone?”

Jaesuk looked around to see Jiho pulling the hem of his jacket; his mouth was stained with crumbles from the cupcake. Jaesuk smiled and lazily squatted down.

“Aigooo~you eat like an animal,” Jaesuk wiped off the crumbs, occasionally pinching his cheeks and nose which made him grunted in annoyance, “Oh yeah, my friend will be joining us. She promised me to bring her dog with her.”

“A dog?” he asked out loud, “A dog?”

“Ne, a dog. We will meet him soon. And then you can play with him later, with your friends too.”

“Appa jinjjayo?! Ah joha! Joha! Joha~” Jiho exclaimed loudly and ran back to his friends, telling the mysterious companion to his friends. Jaesuk watched as they all burst in joy, running here and there, everywhere.

Their wish for a four-legged friend came true, when ten minutes later a dog was running towards Jaesuk. A couple of kids noticed and immediately ran straight to him.

“Appa, is this the dog?”

“What is his name?” Another boy asked.

“His name is Burger,” The three boys turned around to see a woman towering above them. They were quite startled by the sudden present, “Annyeong!”

“A-annyeong....”

“Yah you don’t have to be so shy. This is Deanna, the friend I told you earlier.”

“N-ne, nice to meet you, ahjumma,” Jiho and the other two kids bowed down slightly, “Burger is cute.”

“Why, thank you,” Deanna smiled and ruffled the boys’ hair, “Don’t you want to play with Burger?”

“Ne!!”

With that the three boys practically running away with Burger in tow; welcomed by the rest of the kids at the center of the park. Soon Burger was drowning into the crowded kids.

“So you came,” Jaesuk snorted.

“So I came,” Deanna couldn’t help but to put a big smile on her face, “So this is how it feels to attend a school event.”

“You have never?”

Deanna just shook her head, “Not as an ahjumma.”

“Yah, ahjumma. That fits you somehow” Jaesuk playfully mocked, only to be punch on the arm.

She went on, “Anyway, what’s this event about?”

“Class competition. Jiho will compete in marathon,” Out of nowhere, Jaesuk suddenly chuckled out loud, “Yah, I was worried that you would wear high shoes.”

Hearing that, Deanna looked down to her canvas shoes and looked back to him. She suddenly smirked mischievously, “You’d be embarrassed?”

“Hey! I’m fine—,”

“Oh look! The competition has started! Let’s watch!”

Immediately Deanna started to drag him to the center of the park. Jaesuk rolled his eyes in annoyance. But he followed suit.

 

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Thanks for reading xoxoxo