15

Liana could only grab the little’s one hand but that’s where her actions stopped. Everything else froze around her, except the shouts and the cheers but a hot tear turned them off too.

“Yaaah! Another perfect fan-service!” the loud, chunk broadcaster announced making everyone to burst in claps and cheers when Jiyong hi-fived a short, enthusiastic girl. “Now, TOP-ssi!” he turned over to Seunghyun.

“Hyung…” Ji slowly poked him because he wasn’t yet reacting in any way.

“Huh?...” he finally got to say after every single tear of Liana replayed in his mind over and over.

“Ommo!! Who stole TOP-ssi’s eyes like that??” the annoying broadcaster rolled to look for the place Seunghyun was staring at. “Whaa!! Our TOP-ssi prefers non-Asian girls?!” he shouted grinning.

“Mwo?!!” Seunghyun looked around like he was barely woke up from a bad dream. “Ani! Ani imnida!...” he started waving his hands, trying his best not to lock eyes with Liana.

“Oh, yes, you do! You do!” the little man kept on shouting, stretching his arm to Liana. “Agassi!” he said grabbing her arm. “Agassi, do you speak Korean?”

Seunghyun’s mind already created thousands of ways for her to react… more or less possible. He even went that far that he actually saw her creaming and asking for an explanation. He was about to step, when Ji caught his sleeve.

“Hyung… isn’t she…?” he whispered mostly.

“Yes she is!” Seunghyun quickly answered when her voice froze him a little.

“No, I don’t…” Liana answered in English, piercing him with her eyes.

“Well…then how did you answer me?” the short man laughed.

“You asked if I can speak, not if I can understand” Liana replied throwing the chubby man in some sort of hysteric laughter.

The crowd answered the same way, the only ones not amused at all remained Liana, Seunghyun and Jiyong.

“Aggassi!” the broadcaster annoyed her again. “Do you have any idea who they are?” he asked this time in English, grabbing Seunghyun’s arm to drag him closer to her.

At first, Liana wanted to lower her eyes but Seunghyun’s black glasses made her to stare at him. She really wanted to answer something to see his jaw drop but she wasn’t really sure of the questions she was being asked, so she just smiled lowering her eyes.

"Yaaaah!" the annoying voice shouted again "Fan-service! Fan-service!" he made the crowd scream with him while dragging Liana`s sleeve.

"Ani... Anieyo... I really can`t" she insisted pointing towards her holding hands.

"Aahh! Babysitter!" the broadcaster laughed.

"Tutor..." Liana mostly mumbled. "I honestly don't have time for this..." her words achieved their purpose and brought shivers down Seunghyun's spine. He would've yet again stepped forward if Jiyong wouldn't have grabbed his arm to discreetly make him stay put.

Liana took deep bows slowly withdrawing, dragging the still-chained kids after her.

"Oh ha-ha-ha!" the little broadcaster laughed a little too loud. "I am sorry TOP-ssi, but you had no luck with this one foreign lady!" he said putting Seunghyun’s eyebrows to his upper part of the forehead.

"Ah... nae, nae..." he finally replied smiling, after realizing that no one could possibly know what was going on between them, but still, the annoying, little man's words left a strange feeling in his heart, making even the simple act of standing a difficult task. He took hidden deep breaths to conserve his straight posture, eye following Liana. Well, at least one thing was to be happy about: the little kids did not recognized him, because if they would’ve start yelling ‘Mr. officer’… he really had no idea how he could’ve react.

***

“Miss ‘Teach, wasn’t that man looking a little like Mr. Officer?...” Luiza asked once they were out of that huge crown and she could be heard again.

“Please, Luiza! Just shut up! Five minutes you are not allowed to say anything! Any of you!”  Liana snapped at them.

The little ones quickly shut their mouths and just stared at her. She took a deep breath trying to conceive a speech but Seunghyun’s eyes wouldn’t let her – they were following her everywhere. She shook her head to chase them away. No wonder he looked so familiar she thought and quickly shook her head again.

“Luiza, today…” she stared but she had to suddenly stop when she heard her own trembling voice.

‘What the hell is wrong with you??’ her conscience thundered. ‘Are you really planning to get even with this little kid because of that… of that…’ she looked for a proper word but she couldn’t find one. She knelled before Luiza and grabbed her little hands into hers:

“Luiza, please stop running like that” she started using her most soft voice “Remember what happened just a few days ago? Please… just ask me anything! As long as I can I will make it happen for you, but please… don’t run like that again…”

Oh, well… it came out a little different than she thought about it, but she reckoned it was good enough.

“Ok, miss ‘Teach…” the little one answered. “But please, don’t cry…” she said hugging her.

“Cry…?...” Liana hugged the little girl back when something wet her cheek.

‘Really? Crying? Are you crying because of him?!’ again her nasty conscience made her frown.

***

“Hyung!” Jiyong grabbed Seunghyun’s arm when he was absent-mindedly pushing the door’s handle.

“…? Ahh, Jiyong-ah…” Seunghyun softly smiled, waiting for his friend to step outside the television’s building.

“Are you ok?” Jiyong asked, checking him out.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Seunghyun faked a smile again filling his lungs with the fresh evening air.

“Wanna` go grab some drinks?” Ji looked for his friend’s eyes.

“Ani… I’m going home” he answered.

“Ok, I’ll drop you off!” the youngster said pocketing after his car keys. “Are you coming?” he asked when his friend wouldn’t move an inch.

“Jiyong-gi… may I accept your offer now?” Seunghyun asked back hiding his hands inside the really big jacket’s pockets.

“Sure!” Ji answered beeping his car twice.

Less than 20 minutes later, they were sitting at some quite nice, cozy glass table with one bottle of expensive wine facing them.

“Do you plan on getting drunk tonight?” Ji asked pouring him a glass.

Seunghyun smiled emptying it even before Ji got to fill his own glass.

“I guess you are…” he answered mostly for himself and poured in his senior’s glass again. “May I ask who she is?” he asked after he tasted the wine.

“Mhm…” Seunghyun answered smiling from inside his glass and before Ji could get a chance to speak again, he completed: “I really should’ve stayed away. You know, stay in your own box” he said drawing an imaginary square with his fingers. “I really didn’t needed any trouble in my life. As long as you keep the distance… you’re safe… right?” he spoke fast and without babbling even though his hands gestures became slightly larger.

“Is she the one you saved that day?” Jiyong tried to get the glimpse of the story.

“Mhm!” Seunghyun nodded emptying again the whole glass at once.

“The same from the church yesterday?” Ji asked slowly pulling away the bottle.

Seunghyun nodded again grabbing it with a sly smile. He filled his glass again for the third time in about 5 minutes.

“Do you like her?” Ji asked straightforward.

“I’m afraid so… and a little more” he answered rolling the glass in between his fingers before he took another big sip.

“And today…” Ji struggled to understand. “She didn’t know who you were?”

The answer came through a head shake.

“I guess she didn’t even knew your name… right? I mean if she’d knew it… You hid it?”

“She never asked it…” Seunghyun smiled taking a new sip.

Ji copied his friend.

“But at least do you know hers? …What do you know about her?” he asked looking like a real disapproving father now, watching his son as he was filling again his empty glass.

Seunghyun’s eyes got wet and sparkly:

“She has the most delicate hands I have ever felt and the sweetest lips I have ever tasted…”

“It sounds like you got far enough…” Ji replied trying to hide his shock in his first half empty glass. “So… I don’t get it… last night at the church she sounded like she…” he was about to say that she liked him too but her after-that-words came back through Seunghyun’s deep voice:

“She won’t allow me to ruin her family…” he said emptying the glass again.   

“Oh…” Ji frowned “…indeed this is a problem but…” he took the bottle when Seunghyun also grabbed it.

“Yah!!” he raised his voice.

“You don’t need to do this…” Ji fought a little for the wine bottle.

“Give it back!” Seunghyun yelled waving his hands, trying to reach it.

“Aniyo! Absolutely not!” Ji yelled back. “How would getting waste help you??”

“I won’t be able to do anything else!” Seunghyun kept on shouting. “I’ll just get drunk and then go home and sleep!... there’s nothing else I can do…” his voice turned into a whisper.

“Hyung…” Ji gave up on the bottle he just stared at his friend.

“Jiyong-ah… you know…” Seunghyun tried getting up after he drank a new glass at once, but he just managed to fall over Jiyong.

“Aish... hyung, even your breath gets me drunk…” Ji whined helping him to find the right human posture again.

“…I was half …” Seunghyun continued his story making Ji’s eyes to stare at him “…and I took her face into my hands…” he even exemplified grabbing Ji’s face “…and I could taste her lips…” he said literally kissing his desperate friend.

“YAH!!” he yelled his heart out pushing him on the ground and making the other five drunken people to stare at them.          

Seunghyun couldn’t retain his laughter but neither to stand up on his own.

“Aish, hyung… Mian…  mianhae hyung…” Ji was able to react only after he wiped his mouth once without knowing if he should get angry or join the laughter. He bent over to help his friend up, but, unfortunately, he grabbed his wounded arm.

“YAH! Are you trying to kill me?!!” Seunghyun roared pushing Ji away and got up wobbling.

Jiyong stared at him for a short while, just until he saw Seunghyun exiting the building.

“Wha… Hyung!” he jumped up to run after his dizzy friend.

“Hyung!...: he said again catching his arm his healthy one this time around, just before he’s become too acquaintance with the solid concrete. “Hyung, c’mon! I’ll take you home…”

“Ani! Animnida! Don’t touch me! I don’t want you!...” Seunghyun burst.

“I just want to…”

“I don’t need you!” Seunghyun growled again, making obvious efforts to keep himself standing up. “I just need some fresh air… I’m not that drunk…” he smiled, playfully ruffling Ji’s hair.

“Ok…” Ji gave up, “but at least let me walk with you…”

“But…” Seunghyun suddenly froze in place and stared deep in his eyes: “wouldn’t it be  awkward if people would see only the two of us walking in the dark?” he giggles like a dumb, silly girl: “Oppa! Oppaaaa!” he kept on girly hitting Ji’s chest.

“Aish… just stop it, hyung! People might stare…” Jiyong grabbed his hands but before he could react in anyway he got pushed to the ground again.

“See ya, Jiyong-gi!” Seunghyun laughed a little too high-pitched while running towards the cab that just stopped three steps away from them.

“Hyung!...” Ji pouted crossing his arms on his chest, not even bothering to get up. “Eodi ga*?...” he mostly whispered as the car went further away.

“Yah! That guy just stole our car!!” a voice from behind made him just up in less than a split of a second.

“Ah… mianhaeyo!” he quickly took three deep bows to the drinkers that got out from the same place as they did. “I’ll call for another one, right now…” he straightened his back, silently badmouthing everyone.

***

The darkness was so thick in the room that nothing physically could pass it through, nothing  else than her long sighs.

Liana held her face captive under the big cushion, trying to persuade her body that she needed to rest. Her mind, however, was too busy rewinding today. She took another deep, loud sigh and everything came back from the first day when he met the 'policeman' until this night.

“Aaah!”  she groaned throwing the pillow after fighting with it for a while. “Idol!!” she screamed all of a sudden. Ahh.. I could… I could really…” she muttered clenching her hands as if she'd be strangling someone. “No wonder he was so damn handsome!”... she whispered absently touching her lips. “But I hoped he might be gay like every normal good looking guy!! Or a priest!!”she burst again, out loud, snorting and beating the air with her hands and feet for a few seconds until a short bang froze her.

“What was that?” she bolt upright.

_______________________________________

*eodi ga – where do you go?