16

*Seeing as we stopped at the scene where Jonghyun send Luvly home (Chapter 12), we’ll start from there. Sorry for the confusion.

 

*JONGHYUN’S POV

 

I grabbed my phone from my jeans’ front pocket, with difficulty, and called Leena straight away.

Luvly had fallen asleep behind my back.

The words that I said, just now, while I’m piggyback ride Luvly, I said all that in purpose.

I know she’s not asleep because her body suddenly stiff when I said that.

A minute later, I heard a soft ‘click’ and the door opened.

Leena who was in her pyjamas, wearing a confused + shocked expressions.

Apparently, she didn’t expect her sister to be carried home.

“I’m feeling a strong sense of déjà vu right now,” Leena muttered.

“Sorry?” I said, breathless.

I’m starting to feel Luvly’s weight.

My back and knee both started to ache.

“Aniyo…” Leena smiled abruptly. “Come on in.”

She made a way for me and I walked inside, climbed upstairs heading to Luvly’s room.

Right in front of her room, I stopped and Leena helped me to open the door.

I dropped Luvly off on her bed.

I tucked her in and I kissed her on her forehead.

Then I whispered, “Sleep well my love…” and I kissed her once on her soft lips.

Then I climbed back down the stairs.

Leena was watching me anxiously from the bottom of the stairs.

“Can I talk to you for a second?” I said when I head to head with her.

Leena nodded before gestured me to follow her to the kitchen where she make me a hot chocolate while I settle down.

Bout 5 minutes later, she handed me a hot choco and sat next to me.

“So, what is it that you wanna talk about?” she asked.

I took a sip of my hot choco.

It’s delicious.

Make my whole body feel warm enough to said, “I wanted to talk to you about Luvly and me.” Leena didn’t say anything so I went on, “As we all know, Taemin and Luvly used to date each other. And after last night incident, I think you and I know that they’re still in love but they are just to stubborn to actually admit it. And so, I made a plan to make Luvly choose Taemin rather than me. Leena looked puzzled so I continued, “After graduation, I’m going to travel abroad. I’m going to learn more about music. So, I’ll ask Taemin to watch over Luvly for me and never leave Luvly’s side.”

“How’s that going to solve anything?” Leena asked abruptly.

“They’ll spend too much time together, it’s going to switch something on in them,” I said, taking a huge gulp of my hot choco.

“But it’ll gonna make Luvly feel guilty,” Leena said.

“Then I’ll make her dump me. I can’t be with someone that doesn’t like me,” I said, sounded sad.

Pathetic, you might say.

But it’s the truth.

I finished my hot choco and bid Leena goodbye.

 

*LUVLY’S POV

A FEW MONTHS LATER, JULY TO BE EXACT

 

It’s July now and Jonghyun and Onew just graduated from high school.

Last December, when we celebrated Onew and Minho’s birthday, Taemin apologized personally to me.

Seeing as I already know the truth, so I forgave him.

Jonghyun still act like he’s innocent but I don’t blame him.

I can’t blame him.

It is my fault.

I’m just to coward to admit my real feelings.

I don’t want to hurt Jonghyun anymore.

But, is it fair if I myself not happy?

Instead, I felt hurt.

Hurt to realize the fact that I actually love Taemin and not Jonghyun.

“Where the hell is Onew hyung?!” Key’s annoyed voice break my thoughts.

Temper rising high as the train to depart is in another 10 minutes and he and Taemin are still nowhere to be found.

Each one of us had backpack behind our backs.

We’ll go there for 2 days and 1 night.

So by tomorrow, we’ll be back.

“Couldn’t reach them,” Minho said, gripping his phone.

“Taemin is not the kind of person who answers when someone call him. But Onew hyung is the kind of person who answers,” Jonghyun mumbled, looking thoughtful.

I glanced at the big watch on the stations’ wall.

The train will depart in 7 minutes time.

I took out my cell and text, ‘Where d’ hell r u both? U’d better get here or all d’ carnivores in Africa r going 2 look tame next 2 wht waiting 4 u here .’

Then I send the message to Taemin.

Second later, I heard, “No need to sound so resentful.”

I turned and saw Taemin frowning at me.

Jonghyun, Hyori unnie and Minho exhaled in reliefs.

Leena stared at the big watch anxiously.

“Where the hell have you been?!” Key beat me by asking the question first.

“The usuals,” Taemin replied, shrugging.

Key’s attention turn to Onew who is right behind Taemin.

“Can’t you drive faster? Not to mention packing the night before instead of this morning?”

“Onew hyung drives slow like there’s no plan for the day. And he doesn’t like packing the night before. Said he likes sleeping better ‘cause it can save him energy. It drives Key crazy everytime we’re planning a trip,” Jonghyun whispered to me and Hyori unnie.

“Well, I love my car and I don’t wanna get ticket for driving too fast. And I always packed in the morning,” Onew said, defending himself.

“Yes but can you start practicing packing the night before?” Key nagged.

“Can you stop nagging me and start feeling relief that I’m finally here?” Onew shot back.

“Can you guys stop bickering and start moving ‘cause if we don’t, we’re going to miss the train,” Leena said, pointing at the big watch.

All of us turned to see that we got less than 5 minutes before the train departed.

“LET’S GO!” Minho shouts and we all started running until all 8 of us finally stepped safely in the train.

A few minutes later, Minho opened his mouth, “Did you bring the bbq stuff along?”

“Why do you think we’re a little bit late than usual?” Taemin answered.

Hyori unnie, Onew, Key and Taemin were sitting while the rest of us just stand.

Hyori unnie and Onew were talking animatedly.

Key was talking, no nagging on the phone to his mom.

Leena was playing with her phone.

Jonghyun and I just stared at each other.

It’s just our way of snogging with each other in public.

Minho now tried to catch Leena’s attention.

Taemin took out his PSP and buried himself in games.

Ever since the incident of him taking the TAEMIN bracelet away from me, he started focusing on his PSP more as to avoid unwanted romance from me and Jonghyun.

Didn’t blame him though but it kinda make my feelings feel slightly hurt.

Key had finished nagging and now his eyes are searching.

OnHyori couples were still talking.

From the way they talked, I’d rather think of something else.

Minho and Leena kept whispering to each other’s ears, giggling and all.

Leena look giddy in that picture.

Taemin was still absorbed in his games.

Jonghyun and I started to play thumb wrestling when Key suddenly burst out saying, “You couples are making me sick.”

“Sick? Do we need to find u a doctor then?” Minho said.

“No, thank you,” Key said, sounding polite but can be impolite for those who a fast pickups.

“You’re just being jealous ‘cause you can’t flirt with your girlfriend who lives across the country,” Onew said.

“Shut it up, Kibum,” Jonghyun said, using his ‘older hyung’ voice.

At first I thought Key obeyed him but then Key took out his cell and started dialing number.

We ignored him until his voice rang through our ears, “Annyeong Justine! They’re all bullying me!”

Key was talking in fluent English.

He was good!

But then we heard, “Do you know it 8 a.m. right here in my country?! You yourself know I don’t get up from my bed until it 9 a.m. Why the hell did you wake me up so early in the morning?! You’d better have a really good explanation or I’ll fly there and strangle you!”

Key had to put his cell a little distance with his ear to avoid any blood scene.

“Cha-chagiya…” Key stammered at his girlfriend’s reaction.

All but Taemin, who was absorbed in his games, snorted.

Key gave us a quick sharp glance before we heard another one from his girlfriend, “Can’t you call me another time?! FOR GOD SAKE, I’M SLEEPING!!”

All snorted once again, hearing that.

“A-Araso…” Key hung up before Justine can reply anything that might embarrass him even more.

“You were saying?” Leena said, sarcastically.

“Nothing…” Key sneered.

Half an hour later, we arrived at Paldang Dam’s subway station.

“Where do we go from here?” Minho asked Onew who was now lying down a medium size map that shows the whole Paldang Dam.

“I don’t exactly sure…” Onew replied.

“What do you mean you’re not sure?” Key burst out saying, looking horrorstruck.

“Where are the rest?” Leena said, looking around.

I could feel Jonghyun’s cell vibrated as he was holding me a little too tight.

“Yobeseyo? Ne? MWO?!” Jonghyun look thunderstruck. “Ne, ne, ne. Araseo…”

“Wae?” I asked but instead of replying, Jonghyun went to Onew who was still struggling with his map.

“Onew hyung…” Jonghyun started.

Onew turn around to look at him.

“We’ve separated from them,” Jonghyun said desperately.

Instead of panicking, Onew said, “I know. I gave them the direction to go to the place already. I just want a sweet vacation of 8 of us.”

Minho and Taemin’s eyes went round.

Jonghyun’s mouth fell open.

Hyori unnie and Leena glance at each other.

“WHAT’S SO SWEET ABOUT THIS?! We’re stranded in a middle of nowhere and you don’t even know how we’re going to get to Paldang Dam!” Key shouted.

“WHAT ABOUT MY MONEY?!” I joined Key.

“I’ll give it too you later. Stop worrying and shouting. I’m going to go deaf. Now, if I’m not mistaken…” Onew started looking at his map once more before continues with a calm tone, “…we have to walk there.”

Onew look up to stare at us, grinning.

“MWO?!!!” all shouted.

He just grinned innocently.

 

PENSION…

 

“We’re here!” Onew’s voice woke us all up from our exhaustion of walking almost 20 km.

“Omg… It’s so yeoppo…” Hyori unnie breathed.

“I know…” Onew said, hugging her from behind.

“Urgh… get a room…” Key said, walking towards the kitchen.

Minho and Leena started walking around the house, looking while holding hands.

Jonghyun let me down seeing as my ankle hurts once more because of the walking then bring me to the nearest couch to rest.

Taemin already climbed upstairs.

“How many bedrooms are here?” Minho asked.

“5 rooms… One of them has the queen sized bed. Three of them have two singles bed. And the last one, which near the kitchen over there, one bed…” Onew answered.

“And how we’re going to divide the rooms?” Jonghyun asked while massaging my ankle.

“I’ll be sleeping with Hyori…” Onew just started when all of us look at him. “What?” he said, feeling slightly uncomfortable when the stare didn’t stopped.

“Nothing…” we muttered, looking away.

“It’s not like we’re doing anything…” Onew assured.

“Right…” Key said.

After discussing for almost 20 minutes, the bedrooms arrangements had done.

Onew will be sleeping with Hyori unnie, I’ll be sleeping with Leena. Minho will be sleeping with Jonghyun and Key will be sleeping with Taemin.

At first Taemin wanted to sleep alone at the room near the kitchen but Key insisted that he sleep with him under one room.

He said he needed his baby.

Taemin replied by rolling his eyes.

 

THAT NIGHT

 

“I’m hungry!” Taemin whined.

Pfftt… That kid…

Didn’t he learn how to grow?

Onew, Jonghyun and Key looked at each other.

Hyori unnie is in the kitchen, cooking rice although the dishes haven’t been cooked yet.

Leena is having her migraine all over again because of exhaustion.

Minho is also upstairs, comforting Leena.

“Who’s going for the meats and sausages?” Jonghyun asked.

“Let’s decide through Rock Paper Scissors,” Onew said.

“Okay! Let’s go for it!” Taemin said loudly.

“But Minho and Leena are not here,” Key said.

“Then lets just do us 5,” I suggested.

“Ready? Rock, Paper-“

“Wait, wait, wait!” Key interrupted. “What about the team?”

“We’re trying to decide the team through Rock Paper Scissors when you started interrupting us with your wait, wait, wait,” Jonghyun said desperately.

“Okay, okay, okay…” Key nodded.

“Ready? 1, 2, thre-“

“WAIT!” Key cut in. “What about Hyori noona? Will she be doing the cooking too?”

“I already cooked the rice,” Hyori unnie answered, covering for Jonghyun who looked rather irked.

Key nodded but didn’t say anything.

He probably had seen his brother expression.

“Any more questions, Key?” Jonghyun said, no doubt a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

Key shook, staring back at Jonghyun.

“Good,” Jonghyun said. “If you asked one more time, you do it all.”

Key scowled.

So, Jonghyun, Key, Taemin, Onew and I start rock paper scissoring.

In the end, Taemin and I do the table while Onew, Jonghyun and Key do the burning.

Hyori unnie climbed upstairs to check on Leena but I know she was checking to make sure Minho wasn’t up to something.

Knowing Minho, that kind of thing is likely to happen.

It could break a world record if it does.

“Taemin, hurry! Where are the meats?!” Onew shouted, making both Taemin and I jumped.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! In a minute!” Taemin shouted back.

I just stared at him going back to Onew.

“Whacca staring at?” Key’s sudden voice shocked me from my salad cleaning.

“What? Aniyo… Just enjoying Taemin being scolded…” I lied.

“Hmph…” Key left the kitchen with his eyebrows raised at the same moment Taemin entered the kitchen.

I’m glad he didn’t ask more.

I don’t know what I should answer if he did.

I mean, I’m not going to tell him I’m missing Taemin, right?

He’s right next to me for godsake, collecting cutlery.

If that so, why the hell am I feeling kinda, sorta alone?

I have Key, Onew, Hyori unnie, Minho and Taemin as my bestfriend.

I have Leena as my twin.

I have Jonghyun as my boyfriend.

But really, is Taemin considered to be my friend?

With him, I can talk just about anything.

With Jonghyun, I feel like talking to an adult.

Not like he’s serious or anything.

But I feel like I had to talk softly and careful so I won’t hurt him.

All of sudden, I got a new idea.

I passed Hyori unnie on my way upstairs but I ignored her.

I entered my room; Minho was hugging Leena on bed, ok, I am so not going to remember that; grabbed my handbag and entered the next room.

I bolted the door and sat myself on the floor.

I grabbed my note book and my pilot pen from my handbag and started scribbling.

After about a minute of scribbling, I read what I just wrote.

Jonghyun

-Funny

-Romantic

-Noisy

-Protective

-Kind

-Has sweet voice

Taemin

-Not funny

-Weird when he’s bored

-Carefree

-Pushy

I read it for like a thousand times.

Taemin is not romantic but why is that when he whispers in my ears, I blushed?

Taemin is definitely weird.

When he’s bored, he talks to himself, entertaining himself.

But why I find it adorable?

Taemin, he’s not funny!

He always blurted out what he think is funny.

Joke that only he can understand.

But why I actually get it whatever he’s trying to say?

Taemin, he’s pushy!

That’s the main reason why we always fight.

But in the end, he always soothed me.

And why do I always fall for it?

He likes to kiss me and hugged me and all.

Let’s move on to Jonghyun.

He’s funny.

Sometimes…

When he’s being carefree and not all serious and all…

But he’s not as adorable as Taemin is.

Jonghyun is romantic and sweet.

He always sing me song whenever we’re on our date.

Plus, he has a great voice.

But why I don’t blush harder than I was when Taemin whisper me something in my ear?

Jonghyun is loud and I like loud boys.

I don’t like the quiet one.

It just kills me.

If that the case, why I date Taemin?

He can be so shy sometimes that it makes the situation awkward.

Jonghyun is protective.

When Heechul and Yesung showed slight interest on me, he always hugs my shoulders to show I’m his.

Taemin?

Huh…

No comment…

Jonghyun is kind-hearted guy.

He always put my need in front of his.

But that’s only made me more uncomfortable with him.

Like he just put a barrier between us unintentionally…

As I deliberated on my own, I heard the door knock.

It was not loud but enough to make me jump of surprise.

“Luvly?” Key’s voice brought me back to reality.

I hurriedly put my notebook and pen in my bag before opened the door.

Key and Taemin are right in front of me.

“What’s wrong?” Key started. “Is it because of Taemin’s face? That he’s so ugly that you had  to hide up here?”

Taemin glared at him.

“Aniyo… I’m just feeling dizzy.”

Once I said that, Taemin’s right hand shot straight up to my forehead.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, frowning.

Key’s left eyebrow shot right up at Taemin’s action.

I blushed.

“An-aniyo. Just a menstrual headache I guess,” I said, barely getting the words out.

Taemin is still frowning and pursing his lips.

“Menstrual headache?” Key raised both his eyebrows. “Luvly, there is no such thing as menstrual headache.”

“Key, you’re a guy. How do you know if anything like menstrual headache doesn’t exist?” I shot back.

“Shin hyo young, I may am a guy. But I do have a mum. It’s either me or Jonghyun hyung had to be the one who had to buy the menstrual pad, and it’s always me, anyway… So I do know things like menstrual headache are definitely not exist,” Key said.

“FINE!” I shout, slamming the door at Key and Taemin’s face.

From behind the door I could hear Key said, “She’s on her period cycle, all right.”

“Let’s go. Or she’ll blow us all up,” Taemin said and a few second later, I heard footsteps then silent.

Huh…

Am I doing a right decision?

My left hand trace my right wrist before I remembered, Taemin’s TAEMIN bracelet are not at it’s place anymore and I’m doing it out of habit.

Now that I realized TAEMIN bracelet are not with me anymore, my head started to feel dizzy.

Then I started to feel anger.

I got up and lurched outside until I’m right beside Jonghyun who was burning the meats.

Jonghyun, the man who forced Taemin to take back the bracelet, glanced at me and smiled before continuing his meat burning.

I feel like shaking him right now and asking, no demanding an explanation on to why he did that?

Didn’t he know how much that bracelet meant to me?

Why can’t he respect me?

I respect him but all I get was him telling my ex-boyfriend to take back the bracelet.

Please Jonghyun, I NEED THE BRACELET BACK!

“What’re you doing out here?” Key’s voice brought me back to reality. “Aren’t you suppose to be upstairs? You said you’re having some kind of not-exist menstrual cycle headache.”

“Mwo? Headache? I told you to eat something before we got on the train this morning. Look what had happen now. Ka, go eat,” Jonghyun said, sending me away just with his words.

I blinked hard.

What!

Can’t you show me a little sympathy here?

Where have all you caring attitude go to?

Hell or something?

I’m freaking sick here!

Suddenly my stomach really ached.

I even bowed a little.

My hand shot automatically to where it hurts.

I walked back in and climbed up the stairs slowly.

When I arrived at the end of the stairs, I saw Minho who was helping Leena climbing down the stairs in a position of a husband holding his pregnant wife.

They saw me, obviously.

“What’s wrong?” Minho asked.

“Nothing. Just some usual pregnant cramp,” I said, holding the door’s bolt.

“PREGNANT?!” Minho and Leena shouted together, both eyes flipped wide open and were staring at me.

“Period! I meant period cramp. It’s just that your position like this that reminding me of how a pregnant women being held by her husband,” I said.

Leena and Minho looked at each other and I grinned.

“Is there something that I don’t know?” I feel the need to tease them. “I mean, I saw your intimate moment when I was-“

“No, definitely not!” they both said together.

“Okay,” I said, turning the door’s bolt.

Once I’m inside, I said to the still stunned Leena and Minho, “Just so you know, I’m not ready to be an aunt yet.”

Then I closed the door.

Few seconds later, I heard, “HYO YOUNG!”

I snickered.

Then I had to bow again as the pain shot right at my stomach.

Ouch…