Acting and Singing

***

“Yah, give me my notebook back,” he demanded to a girl who was sitting casually while holding a blue small notebook—his book—on the chair in front of him. “Aecha,”

Hearing him calling her name, Aecha looked up to see a boy with a face. His full eyes making it looked so much scarier, but she was used to it.

“You,” Aecha called as she jumped from her seat to stand up. “Do Kyungsoo,”

“What?” Kyungsoo asked. Like how she was used to his scary face, Kyungsoo was used to her bipolar-like behavior.

“You want to be an idol?” She asked and eyed Kyungsoo’s face. Kyungsoo pinched his eyebrows together while taking one step back. “Are you craving for girls’ attention?”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. It wasn’t like he cared, but Aecha definetly just read his notebook on the page which was saying that he wanted to be an idol.

“You have heard me singing, haven’t you?” He questioned.

Well, Kyungsoo wasn’t being a show-off. He did have that angelic powerful voice. Sane agencies would immediately accept him on a audition, moreover he was gifted with a face. No, we’re not talking about the face he made when he was demanding Aecha.

“So you’re not craving for girls’ attention,” Aecha stated her own conclusion. She tapped her index finger while her lower lip and glanced to a direction.

Not really true. I mean, look, everyone loves attention. The attention which is full of amazement, happiness, and love.

“What—“

“I know! You don’t crave for anyone’s attention. You’re craving for mine!” Aecha made her own conclusion, again, and blurted it out.

“What the—“

Aecha who was busy giving Kyungsoo a look with her eyebrows raising suddenly put her finger in front of Kyungsoo’s mouth. As what Aecha expected, he stopped talking.

“Idols won’t swear, you know,” she said slowly putting her finger down.

Do Kyungsoo remained silent. It wasn’t like Aecha was a hundred percent wrong. She was right, she hit the perfect answer in fact. Kyungsoo wanted Aecha’s eyes to only look at his figure.

***

They both stared at the cellphone. Aecha tapped her finger to the table. She rested her chin on her arm which was on the table. Kyungsoo who sat in front of Aecha would sometimes took a glance to see how she was waiting for the phone call too. When Aecha caught him, Kyungsoo looked away. Aecha grinned at how he reacted and hit his arm playfully.

Between their friendly moment, the phone finally rang. Kyungsoo’s eyes widened. Aecha stopped hitting him and leaned her face closer to the cellphone on his hand so that she could hear the conversation better.

“Hello,” he greeted nervously. Inside, he was cursing at how the phone call came on a good moment.

“Hello. Am I speaking to Do Kyungsoo?” a voice on the phone asked. It was a voice of a man on his twenties.

“Yes. How about my audition?” He asked to the point.

Aecha searched for his free hands while her eyes was looking only at Kyungsoo. When she got it, she held it tightly with her hands.

“You—“ The man said and paused so he could give Kyungsoo some time to pray for the best. “—got accepted,”

Aecha’s mouth formed a big happy ‘O’ and her eyes made a half-circle shape. She shook her hands up and down ecstatically. Kyungsoo was happy either because of he got accepted or because he got to see that face of Aecha.

“Thank you so much!” Kyungsoo exclaimed on the phone before he ended the call.

“Now you have expression other than that scary full-eyes look,” she joked. Good thing that Kyungsoo was in a good mood so he grinned, but that didn’t mean he let her go without any punishment. He patted her head and actually rubbing it harshly. “Ow,”

“Eat it,”

“Omnomnom, it’s good!” She playfully joked making Kyungsoo went back to his usual face. “Err, I actually have something to tell you,”

“What? It has to be important,” he said.

“The reason why I waited for the phone call that has nothing to do with me,”

“Yes?” Kyungsoo asked. He hoped for something secretly. Something that would make his heart flutter.

“I...” she paused. Kyungsoo’s cheek began to be colored with slight pink. “...got accepted as a trainee too,”

Kyungsoo’s face fell. What he expected didn’t happen as the storyline inside his head, but still, he couldn’t show it. He showed a surprised face instead to hide it.

“Really? I don’t know you can sing or even dance!” He exclaimed with no feeling added.

“No. I know I can’t do both,” Aecha denied. “I’m accepted as a trainee in a different company with yours,”

“And you’re going to debut as a...” Kyungsoo slowed down his words so Aecha could easily continue him.

“Actress,” she answered.

“What?” Kyungsoo questioned her answer. His full eyes began to appear again. “I’ve never knew...”

“I can act too, idiot,” Aecha said mocking Kyungsoo and stuck her tongue out.

Kyungsoo didn’t like the idea of Aecha being an actress. He hated someone who act. He was afraid that Aecha would take an advantage of her acting skills and fool him.

“Okay then,” he said with a sigh. “Let’s leave,”

Kyungsoo walked out of the coffee shop and Aecha followed her. Aecha noticed his disaprooving look. She sensed unhappy feeling came from him. Yes, Kyungsoo disaprooved, but because it was her dream, he held it back.

“Kyungsoo,” Aecha called. “Are you mad about me being an actress? I can quit and look for another—“

“No. No need to do it. It’s your dream, I have nothing to do with it,” Kyungsoo said and smiled making Aecha slowly smiled too.

He gave his hand to Aecha. Soon, she took his hand and walked home together.

“Stay in my apartment, won’t you?” He asked. “Noona isn’t home, you can use her room,”

Aecha nodded in respons.

“Kyung—“ Aecha called, but she stopped because he looked at her so fast—even before she finished mentioning his name.

“Yes?”

“Let’s walk some more. After this day end, we will be busy with our own training time, right?” She asked with a slightly fell face.

Kyungsoo who was touched immediately agreed.

“Okay, let’s go,” he said. “I decide where we will go, okay?”

With a big smile, he pulled Aecha’s arm and walked faster to a direction. Aecha smiled and followed Kyungsoo’s step. She trusted him.

After a minute, they were in front of a shop with cute things inside. Not cute as girly, but cute as in general, suitable for boys or girls. Aecha’s eyes were sparkling as she looked inside the place.

“Whoa,”

“You like it, don’t you? I often notice this shop when I walk here. I thought you will like it,” he explained.

“A lot,” Aecha added.

They explored more parts in the shop. Aecha would sometimes touch the things or place it near to Kyungsoo to see if they fitted him. Kyungsoo would only chuckle.

Aecha ended up buying some keychain, hair accessories, and two notebooks. After the purchase, they left and went home. When they arrived home, they threw themselves to the couch.

“Kyungsoo,” Aecha called, as always before starting a conversation. Kyungsoo didn’t answer, but he looked at her instead. “I bought something for you too,”

He got up and went closer to Aecha to see what she bought. Aecha opened the plastic bag from the shop earlier. She took out a square-shaped keychain with a cute microphone shape on it. She also took a matching small notebook.

“They’re too cute for me,” he hissed with the intention to joke.

“To accept it or not, it’s up to you,”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and took them. Aecha knew that he actually wanted those. She took out another thing from inside the plastic bag.

“I found nothing related to the job actress so I decided to buy those,” Aecha said as she showed a cute mushroom keychain and a panda notebook with the same size as the one she got for Kyungsoo.

“So, what’s the purpose of buying those?” he asked.

Looking at Aecha’s relaxed expression, he was sure she bought it with a certain purpose.

“The keychains are only for decorating, but in case you missed me, you can look at your keychain,” Aecha explained with overflowing confidence. Kyungsoo pretended to puke even though what she said might be true. “The notebooks...”

“Yes?” Kyungsoo impatiently asked.

“I don’t know. I just love buying notebooks so much,” she answered. Kyungsoo rolled his eyes making Aecha let out her sweet giggle. “I was just kidding. It’s like a journal. You can write your feelings and emotions during your training time. We’ll exchange books if we meet. Basically it’s like exchanging diaries, you know?”

“Girls’ stuff?” he asked with a disgusted face. Aecha nodded. “Never mind. At least you didn’t use the word ‘diary’ from the first,”

Aecha ignored him and looked for a pencil inside her bag. When she got it, she started to write her name on the book.

“Park... Ae... Cha...,” she mumbled her name as she wrote it before handed the pencil to Kyungsoo. “Here, you write,”

He took it and write his name silently, unlike Aecha.

“Let me see,” Aecha said and snatched his book from his hand. Soon, the pencil was in her hand too.

She wrote something silently. Kyungsoo tried to peek at what she wrote, but it was hard so he decided to see it himself later. Her last hand movement was like scribbling. After she finished, Aecha gave the book back to Kyungsoo.

He took the book back to see that Aecha had written something on the second page. He read it slowly. Aecha was actually anticipating him to do it.

“Free ticket to meet Park Aecha,” he read the capital words written on the very top of the page with his eyes narrowed before he continued. “In case I become a famous actress, this is my signature,”

Under the sentence he read, there was a cute signature of Aecha. She had a bunny drawing on her signature making it seemed so ‘Aecha’. Kyungsoo gave her a look. Aecha could only giggle.

“Continue, please,” she commanded.

“There’s nothing more,” he said after flipping the pages.

“Oh, yeah. I forgot,” she grinned. “Now you write on mine,”

“What?” Kyungsoo raised one eyebrow.

“If someday you become a famous singer, I won’t have to chase you to get your sign,” Aecha said as she handed her book.

Kyungsoo didn’t insist, instead, he took it and wrote what he had to write. He wrote the letters in a big size so the whole page was occupied with his writings.

He gave the book back when he was finished. Aecha read it and giggled sometimes. Looking at how Aecha was amused with those things, Kyungsoo softened. He was happy looking at her happy face.

Aecha put the book down and set a comfortable position. She sat on an end of the couch while Kyungsoo lied down on the couch lazily.

“Kyungsoo,” Aecha called and broke up the silence.

“Mm?”

“I had your words on my mind all the time since you said about me being an actress or me and my dream had nothing to do with you,” she confessed as she looked at the ground.

Kyungsoo’s face was red when he saw Aecha’s blushing face. He prepared himself for every word Aecha would say.

“I... Everything about me... has everything to do with you, well I hope so,” she began to reveal the words in her mind. “Before we’re going to be busy, I’ll confess to yo—“

“Stop!” Kyungsoo demanded. “Are you going to confess? To me? I mean, confessing like... love?”

Kyungsoo felt like he said something really dumb. Well, he did, but Aecha responded with a shy nod making Kyungsoo’s stomach hot.

“No, no, don’t. Let me do it,” he volunteered. “I... I like you, Aecha,”

“Really?” Aecha asked, but this time she looked happy with a spirit, completely different with what she was earlier. “You like me?”

Aecha jumped on the couch a few times. Kyungsoo was too confused about the whole thing. He was used to see the extreme change on Aecha’s mood, but this time, it was different.

“Don’t tell me you were...”

“Acting,” she continued and stopped jumping. Aecha sat down near him. Her gaze softened. “I was acting, but it turned out that... you confessed,”

“This is what I hate about actors and actresses. They can fool someone so easily,” Kyungsoo said. He rubbed his temple.

“But the end is good,” Aecha said and giggled.

“What good?” He hissed.

Aecha smiled and showed her teeth. She giggled. She exactly knew how to make this into a good end.

“This good,” Aecha said and pointed at Kyungsoo’s face, or cheek in detail, making Kyungsoo raised his eyebrows.

“What—“

Soon he was cut off by the warmth of Aecha’s lips on his cheek. She gave him a small peck. Kyungsoo’s face stiffened and turned red. His eyes were fixed on the place he was looking at before Aecha kissed him. He took a small glance at Aecha who was smiling.

Kyungsoo attacked Aecha by tickling his waist. As a person who was ticklish, Aecha laughed until she fell and ended up lying on the couch. Kyungsoo ended the tickle.

Later, he regretted doing it. It made the atmosphere change. He was on top of Aecha. She stared at Kyungsoo’s eyes which was getting closer to her. He leaned closer and closer until their lips met. It only lasted for a few seconds before Kyungsoo pulled back, but it was filled with love and warmth.

“Sorry, Aecha. I had the urge to,” he apologized.

“It’s okay. It’s not like only you wanted it,” Aecha shyly confessed as she tried to got up.

“You wanted it?” Kyungsoo asked it disbelief. “Do you really like me? Like as in ‘like’? You like like me?”

“Um, y-yes? Can’t you see this whole time?” She asked and pouted.

Kyungsoo softened and helped her to get up by holding her hands and pulling them. Soon, she could sit properly.

“I thought it was a friendly love,”

“No, it wasn’t!” She denied. “Well, it was more like acting,”

“No doubt they accepted you,” Kyungsoo said, complimenting.

“Told you so. I’m good at acting!”

They both chuckled. Kyungsoo ruffled Aecha’s hair, making her pout and combed her hair with her fingers.

“How about acting as a couple?” Kyungsoo offered.

“Oh, come on. I can do it without acting,”