#07
h o n e s t  w o r d s

If most people despise Mondays, Jinki seemed very excited for the dawn of the week. He appeared in his office looking so full of energy, even though he's usually like that. But this time, his cheerfulness was just too radiating, it crept his co-workers out. Even Kevin, his secretary, was curious about what made the director look so delighted.

"Aren't you looking so happy today, boss?" he asked when he went to Jinki's office to deliver a cup of coffee that morning.

"Do I seem like it? It's nothing, really," Jinki replied, humming a 'thank you' after. "I had a really good weekend, though. I went to play the whole day on Saturday and got enough rest on Sunday. How about you?"

"Quite nice, I spent most of my time home, though," replied Kevin.

"As long as you enjoy it~"

Kevin chuckled. "Yeah, well then, I should be going back to work. I had your organizer filled, okay, boss?" he waved a small bye-bye and headed out of the door.

"I told you, don't call me your boss!" Jinki yelled at him, but Kevin didn't answer, so he shrugged it off and checked his schedules instead.

There was nothing unusual; only deadlines, meetings, photo-shoots (Kevin even organizes his freelance gig schedules), and his regular to-do list. Kevin has always done his job very well and neatly, sometimes Jinki wonders if he's really hard-working or is he the one who doesn't have much to do that Kevin even organizes his to-dos, but still, he was thankful to the secretary. Looking at the calendar made Jinki think about last Saturday, when he went out with Jessica.

After leaving the diner, they had driven around Seoul, not knowing where to go, and eventually ended up in a playground. They had talked some more while having ice cream, sitting on the bench at the side of the park, watching children run around. When it got late in the afternoon, Jessica suggested to go visit her sister who was staying in a dorm of an all-girls school, and Jinki was more than glad to drive her there. Krystal, Jessica's sister, was really pretty, just like her sister (but personally, Jinki thinks Jessica is cuter). She had thought that he is Jessica's boyfriend, but the two of them denied. Eventually, she let it go and then Jessica and her were busy catching up on each other. Jinki just roamed around the dorm waiting for her, and apparently, Krystal has a lot of friends and they were excited over him taking pictures of their dorm, and asked to be photographed too, and of course, Jinki didn't mind at all. They had stayed until the sun set, when the visiting hour ended. Jinki drove Jessica home; an elite apartment in downtown Seoul. He dropped her off and she said that Jinki should be going, and thanked him for the day, and he gladly returned the favor. He went home, ate leftovers for dinner and fell asleep smiling.

No joke, he realized it when he woke up and found that he drooled while he was sleeping. And when he was about to wipe it off, he realized that the corner of his lips were bending upwards.

Jessica looked strangely like she was in a good mood as well, smiling to herself while looking through the layouts that came in. And she was even humming, which made it weirder for Tiffany when she came to deliver the fashion magazine Jessica had ordered.

"Uh, Sica?"

Jessica didn't look at her, still focusing on the sheets of layout. "Mm-hm..?"

"Is there anything wrong? Are you sick?" Tiffany asked, concern apparent in her voice.

"Why are you asking that?"

"You seem kind of.. weird. Are you really okay?"

"I'm okay," Jessica nodded, finally putting the layouts down. "By the way, how did your weekend go?"

A sudden smirk appeared upon Tiffany's face. If Jessica asks her about her weekend first, then she will have to ask her in return and that meant something happened during her weekend. And judging on how she's acting now, it must be something good. "I had a good weekend, thanks. What about you?"

"I had a wonderful weekend," Jessica said dreamily, her face lighting up. "Despite the bad weather, my Saturday was perfect and I got a proper rest on Sunday and even had time to do some work. Nice, right?"

Tiffany wasn't satisfied about the answer. "Nothing else happened? I mean, you kind of sound like you accidentally bumped into Brad Pitt, or something.."

Jessica waved Tiffany's statement off. "Psh, of course not. Now, you still have work to do, don't you?"

Tiffany frowned. "Fine, be that way! If you need me, I'll be at my desk, miss boss," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, as she stomped out of Jessica's office, finally leaving her alone.

Jessica turned her chair around, facing the window, the sun rays poking out from between the blinds. The sunny weather reminded her about last Saturday, when she was out with Jinki.

They had gone to a playground from the diner, after wandering around Seoul aimlessly for some time. He had bought her ice cream, and she had found out that Jinki likes the flavor strawberry, while she was more fond of chocolate, or anything coffee-ish. Sitting on a bench at the side of the park, they started the conversation on the sudden change of the weather and eventually went off topic, but they still had enjoyed the conversation anyway. His camera was hung around his shoulder, and he took pictures of everything. One of the things Jessica remembered from back at the park was when Jinki helped a boy when he fell while he was running near them and had said to her that he likes kids. Later in the afternoon, she asked if they could visit her sister's dorm for a while and Jinki didn't mind at all driving her there. Her sister, Krystal, had thought that he was Jessica's boyfriend, which the two adults quickly denied. While she was catching up with her sister, Jessica noticed Jinki being surrounded by a swarm of teenage girls asking for photos. He was more than happy to do so, of course. He handled the girls by himself, looking happy, excited and a little bit flushed–Jessica thought that he was actually kind of cute. Once the visiting hours ended, Jinki drove her to the front of her building. Before going inside, she didn't forget to thank him and he thanked her back. As soon as Jessica reached her room, she threw herself onto the bed and hugged her pillow, smiling to herself. 

That silly smile she still has on, even now during work.

Suddenly, the sound of a phone ringing startled her. Jessica turned her chair around and grabbed her phone on the desk, touching its screen to see the caller ID.

Lee Jinki calling – answer?

Touching the green button, she greeted into her phone cheerfully, "Hey!"

"Sica-ya!" Jinki replied, no less cheery, if not more cheery than she was. "Hey, how have you been?"

"Good, during the past one day since the last time we met," she said, chuckling. "How about you?"

"I had a really great weekend, thanks to you."

"Yeah, me too."

Jessica could hear chuckling from the other end. "Anyway, I was just wondering if you're busy for lunch later?"

"No, not at all," she quickly replied.

"Great, because I had a really good time just talking to you over meals and–"

"Yeah, I know. I did too," Jessica cut him off, and she knew that both of them were smiling – she could feel it.

"I'll pick you up later, okay?"

"Okay."

"See you later, then!" and he hung up.

It was a short conversation on asking her to go out for lunch, but it made Jessica happy. And she has never looked forward for lunch more than she waited for this one.

Jessica and Jinki walked to a coffee shop, side by side, and unlike the first time, it was quite chattery between the two of them. As usual, they chose the table by the window. Jinki put down his laptop bag and camera on the table, before they stood in the waiting-line.

"Isn't it dangerous to leave your stuffs like that?" Jessica asked, folding her arms.

"I come here often, I think some of the staffs will look out for it anyway," Jinki shrugged. "I'm hungry~"

A sudden giggle erupted from Jessica. "Do you know what my first impression of you was?"

"What?"

"I always thought that you were very talkative and hyperactive, and that's proven. But one time, this thought crossed my mind that you were kind of, um.. a pig?" Jessica lowered her voice during the last word, and added, "No offense."

Jinki looked at her with a confused expression, feeling amused inside. "I can't possibly be a pig!" he exclaimed. "I mean, pigs don't eat bagels, do they?"

He didn't expect this, but strangely, Jessica laughed. But still though, she ended it with a faked one, going, "Ha ha, very funny," as she hit him lightly in the shoulder.

"Well, you laughed.." and Jinki received another hit from her, laughing it off together.

At last, the line was down to them and Jinki quickly decided that he would order a ham, egg and cheese bagel while Jessica ordered a plain sugarcoated bagel, and coffee for the two of them. Carrying a cup of coffee and a bagel each, they sat down on their table. It started off quietly, them nibbling on their bagels while looking at each other, until Jinki started a conversation.

"How was your Sunday?"

Jessica thought for a second while chewing. "I was really tired after going out with you the day before," she said. "I spent a good amount of rest, waking up late and showered at twelve in the afternoon. I ate snacks while reading and then I did work after dinner and went to sleep quite early, thanks."

"Good for you, then."

"I guess so. Then, what about you? How was your Sunday?"

"Oh, yeah. I woke up late too, and I actually spent the rest of the day editing yesterday's pictures, and put them up on my blog," he said happily. "I mentioned you, by the way."

Her eyes widen. "Huh? What did you say?"

"I said that I had spent a wonderful day with you and told them how an incredible person you are."

"Oh.."

Jessica felt kind of.. touched. It was a nice thing to hear, about her being incredible. Nobody has ever said that to her before. "Glad to know, then," she smiled.

"Do you want to see? My blog post?" asked Jinki, patting his laptop bag next to him.

"Sure."

He put his bagel aside and took his laptop out, and after some clicks, he turned the laptop to face Jessica.

Jinki's blog was mostly colored in monochrome, and night blue at some part. It was simple and clean, with a typography-based header of the blog name, he didn't put up any widgets beside some notes for his readers and a copyright notice. Scrolling down, he showed her the post about their Saturday together.

Jessica read it thoroughly, unconsciously smiling as she read the journal word by word. It was interesting to read it for it was written in Jinki's point of view – something about him that Jessica admired. He kept mentioning how much of a cool person she was, and even quoted some witty words from her as well, and it made her giggle. The photos, too. There were the diner's light board, their seat, a view of Jessica's back when she was buying ice cream, children playing and running around, the boy that Jinki helped out when he fell, and Krystal and her friends.

"Too bad you didn't let me take a picture of you," he said to her after she pushed back the laptop to Jinki. "My readers are curious about you."

"Maybe sometimes later," Jessica said. "But those are really nice pictures, and you put together nice words too. No wonder you have a lot of followers."

Jinki chuckled. "I don't know about that, but I hope they think so too," he said. "By the way, did you know what they say about my picture with Krystal and her friends?"

"No, what?"

"They thought I'm popular around girls."

"Aren't you?"

"Quite the contrary actually. Usually, pretty girls don't want much to do with a guy like me," he chuckled. "I'm glad that we could get along well, though."

"Oh.." Jessica tilted her head, smirking. "You think I'm pretty?"

"I think you're drop-dead gorgeous," he answered honestly, casually talking as he gazed up at her, making her blush. "So, let me take a picture of you."

"Lateeeer," she groaned. "I don't like taking pictures for private reasons."

"Mind telling me what?"

Jessica shook her head. "Maybe later you'll find out for yourself," she said. "If you can persuade me into taking a picture, that's amazing."

"Should I?" he said, lifting his camera.

"I don't know, do you want to?"

"Of course I do!"

"But I'm still not letting you," she said, and he pouted. Jessica thought that it was fun to play with him like that, and she laughed.

Jinki was a little surprised that she suddenly laughed at him, but he laughed along with her anyway. After their laughter subsided, he smiled at her, "You look so pretty when you're smiling, and I like your laughter."

"How sweet of you," Jessica said, holding her hand to her chest. "I'm still not letting you taking a picture of me, though.."

He frowned at his failed attempt. "Why not?!"

"Because I don't want to!" she stuck her tongue out at him.

Jinki just sighed. "Fine.. but I'll get you someday."

"Really? Looking forward to it, then," Jessica winked at him.

And she meant it.

© hellopsr stories, 2012

Sorry for the short chapters, guys. I just came back from a one day getaway with my friends, didn't get to pimp this one. BUT, do not forget that every chapter I put has meanings to it. Other than this being a filler chapter for the previous, this small scene leads to new scenes. I'll update more soon!

Anyway, I'm excited about f(x)'s comeback next week! When I saw the teaser pictures I went HOLY THIS IS EPIC. And you can never ever forget baby Soojung's teaser pic. I died at the perfection. Ugh, Jung Genes for the win.

If you want to talk or ask anything, follow my twitter at @goldiluhan! I don't bite. ♥