17

She giggled again and quickly checked the surroundings as if someone could actually be there and surprise them.

"Yeah, I could also need a drink" she whispered smiling as she leaned over him.

She blinked once and her lips touched his, in a soft, dry, one-sided kiss.

"Yeah, well... sticks and stones, love..." she giggled again after the 10 seconds long kiss. "...nothing like in the movies" she kept on babbling a little disappointed because she secretly had hoped that he'd wake up and conquer her with a long-steamy kiss, like it always happens in the movies.

She easily poked him again.

"Pabo*!" she laughed out loud gathering her legs underneath her so she could stare at him more comfortably.

After a while she began thinking that he'll probably have a sore back when he'll get up in the morning, but yet she wouldn’t dare to try moving him again.

"Oh!!" she suddenly said like some really good idea hit her. She reached his pants looking for its pockets. It was quite impossible for now to access the back-side pockets. "Aish! I just wanted to call your friends to come get you..." she pouted when she couldn't turn him over and she just took out her own cellphone. "What was it again?... Choi... How do you even spell 'Sunghiun'?..." she muttered while typing.

Just 2.1 seconds were necessary for Google to point out over 5 billion pages carrying his name. She tapped the first one. Her eyes doubled when a picture of a huge billboard on the huge building near her hotel popped out. How come she never noticed it? She instinctively looked for the window but instead of the window her eyes found a fuzzy Choi Seunghyun trying to stop her stepping outside the elevator. She frowned a little when another such episode came back to her mind, when they were going to the bowling place, and he slalomed between the cars.

"But why do you hide it?..." she asked, then returned to her Google search.

Without realizing, the more she read about it, the more she grew on liking him. Hours passed by but she wouldn't feel them being to busy to watch all of the music videos appearing on the screen and reading all of the comments.

...

A short groan made the almond eyes to try open up. Way too soon, the deaf pain in the back of the head joined in. Seunghyun's hand grabbed it to make it stop but also to help his 100 times heavier head to get up from the flowered pillow. He rolled his strained eyes around trying to acknowledge the surroundings. He sat up and the white blanket fell over one side. He blinked several times until the image became clearer but just now he also felt the aching back that made his head feel like a feather. Suddenly his eyes doubled when a soft voice rang his mind: 'Wont you just roll over...?'. He looked around in less than a second and jumped all up. Bad choice when you have a hangover. He caught his head with both of his hands totally ignoring the slight pain in his shoulder.

"Oh my God!!..." he mumbled "...I came here last night??!" without letting go of his head, he rolled around a couple more times to make sure he recognized the place. "Lll... Lee-noona..." she whispery shouted. "Noona..." he actually almost spoke this time shuffling his way up to the bathroom. He knocked twice, then entered - it was empty. He checked the clock on the wall, it was already past 11, so she definitely was with the kids by now. He took a deep sigh and ruffled his hair. Out of addiction he took his hand to the right back-pocket in search of his nowhere-to-be-found-cellphone. He turned and rolled all over the place until he spotted it next to the blanket he slept on.

"I wonder if she slept near me..." he almost giggled kneeling next to it careful not to spoil the big, already cold, mug of coffee. His phone was right near it and underneath it a white written piece of paper could be seen. He took a big sip from the coffee but he struggled to swallow it down, so he quickly left the mug back to its place on the floor. He took the paper and his grin slowly disappeared. 'Choi Seunghyun...' the letter started. He clenched his eyes in embarrassment when short memories of the way he ''introduced'' himself last night came back to him. To be honest, even if he'd forget, her letter did its best to draw every little detail back: "Choi Seunghyun, TOP, Chum TOP and Bingu TOP, you guys have black and no sugar coffee in this mug. I wouldn't know but i read it might help your hangover. As soon as you guys get up, do call a certain 지용 and also one 대대..." he smiled again at the shaky characters, then he kept on reading: "...they both called each of them 6 or 7 times. After you're done reading I will pretty please ask all of you to leave since you must be really busy people... with all the billboards and the concerts you guys must do."

5260. That’s it?..." he rolled the paper in search of anything else written on it. There was nothing else, no other exclamation mark, nor any other word what so ever so he frowned. "She must be really upset..." he thought out loud dialing Ji's number.

…

“Yeah??” Liana put up a smile that only came out as a grin. “Of course it’s ok! Well, you know me, I really love surprises…” she really tried her best to sound happy but if her speaker could see the big mirror in front of her right now, he’d get her actual feelings in a glance. As a matter of fact, answered mostly on her own, while her mind was busy asking weather Choi Seunghyun would be able to read her “letter” or not. Even if she asked him to leave, she really hoped he won’t - her mind kept bringing back his soft lips watering her eyes and making her blush every single time just like some silly school-girl.

“Oh, OK! Take care! Me too…” she hurried to say when the voice on the other side of the phone announced her that it had to leave and that it loved her.

As soon as she turned off the phone, her forced smile could disappear at will and the long, sad sigh could finally leave her lips totally forgetting for a second that she was still in the women’s toilet.

“What’s wrong, honey? Love problems?” teacher Mariana popped out of nowhere, startling her.

“Huh?? Noo! Why would it??...” Liana quickly answered checking her face once again in the big mirror. 

It was really becoming bothersome… was she so obvious that anyone could tell??!

“Ok, Ok!” the much older teacher smiled. “Come on, we must get to lunch” she said rinsing her hands.

“Ne… um SURE!...” Liana answered following her colleague.

“…This day it’s strangely long…” Liana thought playing with the fork in her mash-potato plate.

“OK! There’s definitely something wrong with you!” teacher Mariana-s voice made her jump again.

“What? Why?...” Liana checked in a glance the kids’ empty plates. “Yah! What’s that supposed to mean?? That I’m fat?? And I always eat a lot?!” she quickly pretended to get upset.

“No…” Mariana tried to make it up to her without actually knowing if she had to laugh at the situation or get upset too. “I just meant, what kind of example we give them if we…” she could hardly abstain a smile now “… we should not play with your food…”

“It’s too late for that now!” the other teacher, Michaela, interfered. “We must go!” she pointed towards the running kids in the mass hall.

‘Yah! Why’s so crowded in here?” Liana thought for herself looking around the total chaos surrounding her. ‘Could this be the way conscious works?’ she looked as if she was still in her own world until one of the kids bumped over her.

“Kids!” she suddenly shouted. “Are you all done eating?” she said making everyone cheer.

Even though she tried escaping her crowded mind, as soon as a certain image or memory got chased away, another one burst out, more powerful and decisive than the previous one. This is why today she almost made everyone around angry, but that innocent smile of hers got her out of trouble on any occasion.

It was already past 9 in the evening and she was slowly stepping towards her room after she set each and every little kid off to their dormitories. She truly, really hoped Seunghyun would still be there, waiting for her. As she was getting closer to the door her heart started pounding louder and louder and she even did her favorite :if game”: ‘If he’s still here, then it was really meant to be…’ she mumbled gathering all of her courage before pushing the knob. Her eyes climbed down towards the ground when the empty room greeted her. She looked around: everything was back to its original place, even the coffee cup was washed up and left on the table. A quick tear escaped her eye, but she fiercely wiped it away.

“Pff! What the hell?!!” she mutinied throwing her shoes away. “He won’t really stumble on the first…” she meant to use an extremely unorthodox word to describe herself but she stopped just in time. She also threw her street clothes then grabbed her oversized hoodie, talking out loud:

“Honestly, what did you expect? He’s like 10 years younger and a celebrity! He could have like 3 billion gorgeous, young, rich bimbos out there…” she continuously spoke while gathering her hair in one tight bun.

***

“Hyung, now where do you go?” Daesung jumped up from his chair when Seunghyun slowly got up.

“Mwo*?” Seunghyun pierced him with fiery eyes. “Wae*?” he asked as unfriendly as his look.

“Well… umm…” Daesung babbled a little before he mustered up his guts “Did you forget we must go to…”

“What? Where?” Seunghyun lost his patience.

“The meeting at the head-quarters” the joyful Seungri answered the last bit of his ice-cream spoon. 

“Is it today?...” Seunghyun looked dumbfounded.

He checked the clock on the restaurant’s wall – it was already half past 9.

‘Lee-noona must be already at home…’ he sighed silently. At first he had planned to not leave at all; after Ji’s phone he planned to return to her place before 9 so he could say he never left the room, but his schedule played a trick on him. Usually these meetings at the ‘head-quarters’ as they always jokily named their studio, lasted until late at night or even early in the morning. He sat back down on the chair, pouting without any other word even if his friends all stared at his with wondering eyes.

***

The loud water jet flooded the room with its noise as soon as the delicate hand turned it on.

Liana blinked twice before checking her image in the mirror. Just a grin left her lips: the hours she had spent last night contemplating the ceiling were somehow visible on her morning face. She pouted and quickly threw a handful of ice-cold water on her eyes. She checked the mirror again and sighed – she gave up and used concealer instead of cold water. After she remade her everlasting bun, she took out from underneath the sink the first-aid kit. She placed it on the small table in the room, then stared at the clock – it was about the time for Seunghyun to appear. A soft knock on the door stole a short startle and a quick smile from her. Without a haste she walked to it, grabbed its knob and opened in one calm move: her smile faded even though she struggled to keep it up.           

__________________________

pabo* - you idiot

mwo* – what

wae* - why