A Chance Encounter. Chapter Fifteen.

I settle for my thick-rimmed glasses as I head out to meet Bona. I’ve always had weak eyesight. My teacher in middle school was the first one to realize it. I used to sit in one of the back benches, and I just happened to spell ‘hymn’ as ‘hymen’ when I took down notes for my literature class. Did I mention I went to a catholic school? Anyway, my mother feared I was dyslexic and took me to a doctor as usual. And later on, she blamed them for not doing their job right when they said I was only suffering from weak eyesight. My mother has some weird distrust when it comes to doctors, yet she rushes to the hospital even if she finds a small pimple on her skin. In fact, everyone in mum’s side of the family is a hypochondriac. Dad always used to get annoyed by it though. I’m pretty sure it played a major factor leading to their divorce. Anyway, there’s no use dwelling on that.

It took me almost an hour to get rid of all the sand from my hair. And my lenses were a walking bag of infection, I’m certain I’d develop a sty in my eye soon. Yeah, that’d really ruin the aesthetics of Bona’s wedding ceremony, won’t it? I really don’t know what happened after Chanyeol left. He seemed upset, I could sense it. I’m certain they must have talked. But Bona hasn’t called me, and neither has Chanyeol. So, I presume the wedding is still on.

I really don’t know what I’m going to do when I see her. I could confront her if I wanted to, but a part of me wants to pretend like I know nothing and just carry on with things like before. Besides, I have other things on my mind – I’ve already started planning another date with Yixing. I asked him if he wanted to shop on the streets. He simply shrugged in return and said, “Whatever makes you happy.” See, this isn’t the kind of answer I would have wanted to hear before – before I met him. I would have thought the guy wasn’t interested, but Yixing is just that way. I’m still getting used to it though. But I somehow feel it’s better than Chanyeol’s overly-enthusiastic “Alright, I’ll make a list of places where we could go shopping.” And then he’d sit and write the pros and cons of each place, before we settled on one place. Yixing’s more of a spontaneous guy and it’s a nice change to be around someone like him.

Bona still hasn’t picked out her wedding dress. I was supposed to accompany her today and help her pick out the perfect one. I assume the plan’s still on because she hasn’t texted or anything. I pull out one of my comfortable sweatshirts from my wardrobe. I have a set of clothes which I wear quite often because they’re just so comfortable, and that irks Bona for some reason. “Why can’t you wear something more flattering?” she’d asked in annoyance once when she’d seen me wear my college sweatshirt to some family outing. I had simply shrugged in return, although I was secretly pleased that I’d managed to irk her. Not only does Bona spend hours grooming herself, she expects everyone that accompanies her to be equally groomed. It kind of reminds me of Chanyeol in some ways. Maybe they are a perfect match!

When I reach the bridal boutique, I find Bona, dressed in a pearl-white gown, staring at her reflection gloomily. She looks like she’s about to cry. I don’t really know what happened between Chanyeol and her the other night, but it seems as if something’s wrong. Bona shuts her eyes slowly and rubs it and then blinks it open again.

“Hey, Bona, you alright?” I ask as I head towards her. I know she’s an annoying brat, who irritates the crap out of me, but I’m not going to stand here and rejoice to see her cry.

Bona blinks again and fans herself slowly. But within a second, she lets out a sigh and flips her hair. “I wanted to see how I looked while crying, just in case I cried at the wedding,” she says, pushing her s upwards. “God, I really need a better push up bra!” she huffs irritably.

What the hell? Here I was thinking something grave might have happened. I had to know it was something like this. She’s such a brat! It’s like she went to some special brat school! I really don’t what Mum and Dad like about her so much, they’re always praising her for any small thing she does. For example, Bona could get a ‘C’ in her math test and she’ll still be praised as if she’d achieved something great. I could get straight ‘A’s and my parents would ask me to do better. How could you not expect me to be jealous? I felt it was completely unfair on their part to do so. And every time I complained they simply said, “Juyeon, she’s going through a hard time.” But the excuse about her going through a hard time went on for years, it was simply exasperating. If anything, I think my parents are to blame for foiling the relationship between Bona and me. If they’d treated us both equally, I wouldn’t have followed her blindly in efforts to impress my parents. And she wouldn’t have been able to boss me around and feel superior. But then again, Bona had been a brat since day one! Anyway, I did decide to take the high road, didn’t I? I’m not going to cause a scene. I’m going to be mature and collected here.   

“Maybe I should get more padding,” she says, examining her reflection closely. The dress looks quite good on her. But then again, she looks great in anything. She has a perfectly shaped body, which she takes pride in. And she should, I mean, that’s the only thing she’s sincere about. She has an intense work-out routine, a very strict diet restriction and a fixed fitness regime. Now, that takes a lot of will-power, and I commend her for that. See? I’m doing great – I’ve even thrown in a compliment towards her, albeit in my thoughts. She looks chubbier than usual though, but that only makes her glow more. Bona had a brief career as a model too. I don’t know what happened to it; she did a few commercials but then gave it up. Apparently, it was a little too hectic for her. Her brother c