Chapter Twelve
Mysterious Friendship
I looked at Ricky who was starting to dose off.
"ChaeYoung," he mumbled as he tried to fight falling asleep.
"Just rest," I said. "We can talk in the morning."
Ricky nodded as he drifted off into sleep. I sat there and watched him sleep as I thought everything over. Changjo showed up soon enough and I stepped out to talk to him.
"Whats next? You break Ricky's heart?" he questioned.
"I don't know," I said.
"Why did you have to kiss Ricky? Now he's going to think he has a shot when it's probably Chunji and it's been all along."
My jaw dropped at his words. I couldn't believe he said that.
"You make it sound like this has been going on longer than it has. And if I'm not mistaken, a certain ghost was telling me to kiss him."
"Yes. And by kiss I meant peck on the lips. Very minor lip touch. Close to none."
I rolled my eyes and turned to go back into Ricky's room. Right now I didn't want to deal with Changjo.
"I'm not done!" he said.
"Well I am," I said.
I went back into the room and Changjo followed. I sat back down in the chair and Changjo went on.
"Chunji has a black eye, Ricky has a broken leg. I'm in a coma for goodness sakes! What's next? Whatever it is will you kiss that person too?"
I glared at him from the chair.
"Stop being jealous," I told him.
Changjo rolled his eyes and chuckled.
"That's funny. You think I'm jealous."
"Oh, I know you are. Why else are you like this?"
Changjo's eyes went wide as he fumbled around for an answer.
"Because your playing with my best friends heart."
"My bad. I didn't know you and Ricky had a thing."
Changjo was speechless for once. He then smirked and walked over to the chair.
"That was a good one," he said. "Though we all know the truth."
"Which is..?"
"That I'm a ghost in a coma and once I wake up you'll want this."
Changjo gestured to himself and I started to laugh at him. Then I remembered that Ricky was asleep. I covered my mouth while I stopped myself from laughing.
"That is not true," I told Changjo.
"Oh, but it is. The fact you can't date me makes you sad so your trying to create these feelings for my friends but they can't satisfy you. Because I'm the one you belong with."
I shook my head as I held back my laugh. Changjo was insane. I didn't like him. I liked Ricky.
Wait! I just said Ricky. So does that mean I chose him? And not Chunji?
I looked over at Ricky and smiled seeing him sleeping.
"I'm not trying to create feelings," I told Changjo. "These feelings are already there."
"If you say so."
Changjo left me alone with Ricky and I laid my head down on the bed to try to fall asleep. It was hard to fall asleep but soon enough I did.
When I heard my name being called, I ignored whoever it was and tried to stay asleep.
"ChaeYoung," the voice said again.
I finally opened one eye to see Ricky. I remembered where I was and sat up.
"Why didn't you go home?" Ricky asked.
"I didn't want to leave you," I said looking down.
"Well you need to go home and get ready for school."
I rolled my eyes at the thought. School was the last thing on my mind right now. There was no way I was going to go.
"What if I told you I still don't want to leave you? I mean, we still need to talk right?"
Ricky seemed to be debating whether or not he was going to make me go to school.
"I'll be here when school is over," he said. "I can't go anywhere."
"Why do you want me to go school?" I whined.
"I don't. I'd rather you stay here but Chunji wouldn't like it if you weren't at school. Your mom wouldn't like it either."
I sighed and got up from the chair. After stretching out, I made my way to the door.
"I'll see you after school," I told him.
I walked out and headed home. My mom was awake and attacked me with a hug.
"Are you okay? You said Ricky got hurt. What's wrong with your arm?"
"Mom, it's okay. It's just a little scrape. Ricky saved me."
I went to get a shower and get changed but my mom stopped me.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"To get ready for school. It's a Tuesday."
"You can take a shower but your missing today."
I'd never thought I'd see the day my mom told me to stay home.
"And why is that?"
"Because your growing up so fast and I need a day with my baby."
I got my shower and then joined my mom in the living room.
"Are we going out or are we spending the day at home?" I asked.
"We're going out," my mom said.
I finished getting ready to go out and Changjo appeared as I was fixing my hair.
"What do you want?" I snapped at him.
"To apologize for last night. I was kind of a jerk."
"Yeah, you were," I said.
It was quiet for minute as Changjo stood there. Probably waiting for me to accept his apology.
"Am I forgiven?" he asked.
I turned to look at him and thought for a moment.
"Fine. You're forgiven. Now go."
After my hair was done, I went out with my mom. We went for breakfast and I got a call from Chunji.
"Where are you?" he asked.
I mentally cursed myself for not calling him. My mon gave me a look telling me to end the conversation.
"I'm with my mom. She didn't want me to go to school today. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Are you really with your mom? Or are you with Ricky?"
I let out a sigh. Why didn't he believe?
"You can talk to my mom yourself," I said.
I held out the phone to my mom who wasn't really happy to take it but did so anyway.
"Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I'm trying to spend some quality time with my daughter so I'd appreciate of you didn't call back today."
My mom ended the call and handed me back my phone. It was nice to spend the day with my mom. I didn't have any friends who were girls. My mom was the closest thing. I talked to her about my whole situation with Chunji and Ricky.
"You don't like Ricky," my mom told me.
I looked at her confused. By this point we were sitting down for lunch. We had gone to see the latest chick flick after breakfast and then went for lunch.
"What do you mean I don't like him?" I asked.
"I mean just that. You don't like him enough to date him."
I thought my mom was crazy. But then she started to explain.
"You said he did this to get attention. That's what all this is. He got your attention and now he put this seed of doubt in your mind. Now because he's hurt you just want him to feel better. Some of what you feel might be the fact your thankful he pushed you out of the way."
Part of me believed her. The other part of me still thought she was crazy.
"So your saying I'm forming these feelings because I feel bad and just want him smiling?"
My mom nodded and Changjo appeared at a nearby table.
"Told you that you were making up feelings," he said before leaving.
"What do I do then? How do I tell him that I don't want to date him?"
My mom shrugged her shoulders.
"Your going to have to do that yourself."
I sighed and tried not to think about it at the moment. I hadn't occurred to me until we were back home that my mom had skipped out on work.
"Why didn't you go to work today?" I asked her.
"Well, I've been given some time off."
My mom went into the kitchen and started to take out some food for dinner.
"Time off?" I asked following her.
"A vacation dear, don't worry."
I could tell that wasn't it. I knew when my mom was lying. Now was one of those times.
"Did you get fired?" I asked.
"What would make you think that?"
"Mom, tell me the truth. Were you fired?"
She sighed and looked over at me from the fridge.
"Yes," she said. "They had to cut some people due to budget cuts. Tomorrow I'll go look for a new job."
My mom acted like everything would be fine but how would it?
"What if you don't find a job soon?"
My mom shrugged her shoulders like she didn't know. Though I think we both had an idea.
That night I got under the covers even though I didn't think I would be going to sleep any time soon. Changjo appeared and sat on the edge of the bed.
"I should stop buying lunch at school. That will save a bit of money. I don't know what my mom was thinking taking me to the movies. Or when she took me out to eat."
"She was probably hoping you wouldn't figure things out," Changjo said.
"But this is something I should know."
"Your mom is going to figure everything out," Changjo assured me.
I sat up and scooted over, making room next to me. He moved over and pulled me in for a hug.
"What if she doesn't? Then what if we move back to live with my grandma and grandpa?"
"That's not your only option... Is it?"
I wasn't even sure. I hope it's not.
Chapters 8-13 for deleted. I'm re-adding them. No new chapter until Monday though.
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