“You what?!” My step brother’s deafening cry caused me to drop the cotton ball on the carpet floor. I groaned, bending over the edge of the bed and reaching for the alcohol drenched piece of white fluff. There weren’t any other antiseptic remedies in my first aid kit and I couldn’t leave my cut untreated. The cut was almost an inch wide leaving a long mark on the middle of my right foot.

I tucked the phone between my shoulder and my cheek again as I used both hands to apply alcohol on my feet.

“I told you I broke a glass and accidentally stepped on it. Don’t make such a big deal about it,” I lied. There’s no way I could tell Su Ho what actually happened. He’d freak out a hundred times more than how he already is now. Lying leaves a terrible feeling of guilt in me, especially lying to Su Ho. But I can’t tell him “Oh I got in trouble for being frank then got chased by grown men so I ran through the streets of Beijing barefooted with a Chinese man”.

Su Ho sighed heavily. He muttered “I knew I shouldn’t have let you go there alone,”

I placed the cotton ball on the bed and grabbed my phone with my left hand. “Don’t worry about me. I’m super fine,” 

“Bo Mi…just…don’t kill yourself will you?” Su Ho heaved another sigh. He’s probably massaging his temples right now with creases on his forehead as he furrows his eyebrows.

I laughed “Neh,”

“I’ll hang up now. Sweet Dreams Bom,”

“Mhm. Love you,”  

His low chuckle made me smile. “Love you too,” and the sound of the high toned beeping ended our short conversation. I threw my phone on the bed and laid my back on the soft unruly sheets.

The hotel room was uncomfortably silent. It’s so silent it’s actually deafening. Turning on the television would suppress that disturbing sound of nothing but I fear that I wouldn’t understand a single thing—thus resulting to me turning off the television again.

It’s still five in the afternoon yet I’m stuck in my hotel room unable to walk properly without flinching. The cut wasn’t as stinging as it was before but it’s still there and it still hurts.

Slowly the silence engulfed me, lulling me like a child to sleep. The rumbling sound of the air conditioner and the muffled voices of Chinese citizens talking outside made my eyelids heavy. I guess my trip to China would officially start tomorrow. But right now…I need some sleep.

 Seeming like only a few minutes has passed by I thought I’d wake up with the same yellow sky peering through my window.  Without having dreams made it feel like I only blinked. When I woke up, the orange sky of the setting sun was replaced with the dark starry heavens of the night. I searched the dimly lit room for a clock then I looked for my phone.

The poor thing was hanging for its life at the edge of my bed. I must’ve pushed it there considering the fact that I didn’t wake up at the position I slept in—I never really was the still sleeper.

Just before it fell to the ground, I grabbed my phone. The clock had changed also from 5:24 in the afternoon to 8:37 in the evening. I’ve been asleep for almost three hours without a food to my stomach. My stomach grumbled reminding me of its presence, and it needs to be feed immediately.

I took out my spare slippers from my luggage and slipped them on. A jolt of electricity s up my leg as I placed my right foot in the flip flops. The wound had completely escaped my mind.

Beside the slipper lay Tao’s blood stained handkerchief. It dawned on me that I’d never get to return this to him anymore. I took it from the floor and wrapped my foot in it again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After completely filling myself to the brim with food at the buffet area, I decided to take a walk at the garden I saw somewhere behind the hotel. I saw it when I arrived that morning and planned to give it a look. The unfortunate turn of events made me forget about that as well.

The entrance to the garden was through a glass door at the dining area. It seemed to be empty that night since most of the people were either dining or asleep at the comforts of their hotel rooms.

A dirt path lined with pebbles led directly to a center fountain. I followed the path to the sound of falling water. 

I sat on the edge of the fountain and just felt the breeze of the wind on my hair. The wind reminded me of the sea, my favorite place on earth. How it held so many undiscovered wonders excite me. Closing my eyes I already imagined myself on the white beaches tracing my hands over the sand.

“Oh. It’s you,” A familiar voice snapped me back to reality. I whipped my head around and saw Wu Fan taking a seat beside me. My face hardened with irritation when I saw his face. It is a small world after all and I'm not really enjoying its small-ness. He laughed rather freely as a response breaking the serious stereotype image I thought of him before.

My eyes trailed to the Korean novel he held on his hand.  His eyes followed my gaze. “You know this book?” he raised the novel to my face.

I nodded. “But I’ve never read it before. My boyf...” I immediately trailed off. Jeremy always carried that book, everywhere. Sometimes I hid it from him because he’d engulf himself too much on reading that he’d forget I was beside him.

Wu Fan was luckily scanning through the book to not notice my sudden trail of thoughts.

Watching him read the book in silence made me smile. It reminded me of…agh damn it. I shook my head frivolously and turned the other way.

“You okay?” He asked hearing me grumble at myself.

“Great,” I tried to hold back sarcasm in my voice.

Suddenly out of the blue, Wu fan closed his book and said “I’m sorry about the misunderstanding at the airport,”

My eyes snap to his brown ones clear with sincerity. His soft eyes made it hard to not stare at them. It’s not easy for me to accept anyone’s apology quickly because truthfully I’m a bit hard headed. But when his lip curved up on one side, a gust of wind blew his name off of my "to hate" list which had Jeremy at the number one spot. 

This trip isn't really helping like how Sun Mi promised. Jeremy still lingers as a painful nightmare in my thought no matter what I do. Even this guys reminds me of my ex. 

I broke eye contact with him and hung my head low. “I-it’s okay Wu Fan,”

“Call me Kris,” he chuckled.

We both fell into silence—listening to the passing cars outside and the rustling music by the leaves. Starting a conversation with someone you barely know is quite a task. The only thing I know about him is that he reads the same book as my ex boyfriend which is really not a good conversation starter.

I looked at him and found his horrified stare on my feet. The bloody handkerchief must’ve caught his attention. I shifted my legs to the other side away from his view.

“What happened to your feet,” Kris asked.

“I... uh...”

Kris stood up then kneeled in front of me. It took me a while to realize what he was doing when he reached my wounded foot and started to untie Tao’s handkerchief. What is it with people and helping me? I pulled my feet back and embraced my leg close to my chest. He snapped his gaze to me.

“It’s okay I’ve already treated this wound,” I defended.

“Just let me see it,” Kris stepped forward and I moved back. Forgetting the small detail that I was seated on the rim of a fountain, I toppled over and slammed into the cold water. My head hit something hard and after that everything went blank.

The only thing I remembered was being carried up a staircase. Also I did feel the wet cloth of my clothes leave contact with my skin then rest was history. But then again I was unconscious; I didn’t know what was really happening.

Hi readers~ yeah this chapter was pretty boring neh?

btw I don't know who Bo Mi would end up with. haha. depends where the

story goes and who you guys like. but do expect that it's either kris or tao (lol)

I can't update every day since I have college reviews to attend to. Actually at 

some parts of the review I daydream about my next chapter. /facepalm. 

My tuesdays and thursdays are free though. expect me to update every other day then. ^^

though my schedule is a bit unruly so I can't hold promises. miane~~

- Kleo ♥