------Jooli------

“Thanks for the food. I’m so glad you brought me here. The food is awesome!” I was all hyper after eating such good food. I was going to pay for the food, but Jaejoong insisted on paying and wouldn’t let me pay.

“Yeah, no problem.” He laughed at my childish act. Then, I thought of an idea. Since he paid for dinner, I thought of a place that I would show him.

“Since you paid for lunch, I’ll take you somewhere. Do you mind if I drive?” I asked him permission to touch his expensive car.

“Be my guest.” He chucked me the keys. I smiled and got into the car. He followed and sat next to me.

There was one place that I loved going every summer. It was a place that only Jina and I knew. I never told anyone else. All the times I’ve been there, I’ve never seen anyone else. The place was 40 minutes away from the hotel. It was near one of the other beaches where people don’t go because it’s not near places like the shopping mall, restaurants, or hotels. There’s sometimes a couple people fishing on the dock, but it’s mostly old men.

“The beach? You wanted to bring me to the beach? Why go out all the way here when there’s a beach by the hotel?” Jaejoong asked when we reached our destination. The two of us got out of the car and I passed his keys back to him.

“Not the beach. Follow me.” I said and started walking. I walked towards the rocky side of the beach, away from the water. Jaejoong followed me as I brought us further away from the car. I wasn’t sure if I was going the right way until I heard the sound of a waterfall.

“Come on, we’re almost there.” I exclaimed and jogged ahead with Jaejoong following. We had to walk up a hill for a while because the place I was taking him was somewhere higher than ground level. When we walked past a couple trees, I smiled when I saw the flowing river. We were probably about two and a half meters above ground level. Below the waterfall was a little cave. Beside the waterfall was ground. We had to jump down to the ground in order to get into the cave. Just as I was about to jump, Jaejoong stopped me by grabbing my arm.

“You’re not really going to jump in there, are you?” He asked me with a worried expression.

“Don’t worry. It’s not high at all. Just follow me.” I assured him and jumped down first. When I landed, I looked back up and saw Jaejoong staring down at me.

“Come on.” I told him. He looked kind of worried at first, but then he also jumped down to where I was. He landed perfectly.

“Wow… this place is amazing.” He said and looked around him. Even though the waterfall was blocking most of the sunlight, the cave was not dark. The sun changed the color of the cave to a nice blue color. It was the perfect spot to relax. Listening to the sound of nature and breathing fresh air was exactly what I needed after a crazy night.

“I know right? Jina and I love to come here when we feel down or if we’ve been too stressed. Sometimes we even take a short nap. Make sure you don’t tell anyone about this place. You’re the second person I brought here.” I told him and took a seat on the ground.

“No worries, I won’t tell anyone.” He laughed and took a seat next to me. I smiled and nodded my head. Then I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of the waterfall. I felt so peaceful, so relaxed. I suddenly felt a pair of eyes staring at me. I opened my eyes and saw that Jaejoong was just staring at me.

“What?” I asked him, looking down and touching my face to see if there was something on it. I checked, but there wasn’t anything on my face.

“Nothing. I was just thinking that you’re kind of pretty when you’re not shouting at me.” He laughed and looked at the waterfall.

“Did you just give me a compliment? That’s something different.” I laughed. I actually felt kind of happy when he said that. I felt my heartbeat increase a little bit. The way he stared at me made me shiver. I no longer felt scared being next to Jaejoong. I no longer felt anger when he made fun of me. I guess I was used to it.

“Then do you want me to continue calling you fat and ugly?” He smirked and looked at me. I never really took a good look at him, but when I did, I saw that he had the perfect profile and his smile made him look even more handsome.

“No…” I mumbled and looked away.

“You’re blushing.” Jaejoong simply said.

“What?! No I’m not!” I exclaimed and quickly covered my face. Jaejoong just laughed at my reaction.

“Hey! That’s not funny!” I hit him on the arm.

“Fine, fine. Sorry.” He apologized with a laugh as he dodged my punches.

“You better be.” I said and stopped punching.

“So, you’re going to Oxford, right?” Jaejoong asked me as he played with the sand on the ground.

“Yup. I’m going to be a freshman.” I replied with a nod.

“First year is really hard. Don’t slack off and don’t party. If you don’t do well in the first year, you get kicked out. Make sure you make friends with people who try in school. Don’t make friends with people who party and such.” Jaejoong gave me some tips on surviving my first year of university.

“Then I should be making friends with you. I don’t want to get kicked out on my first year of university.” I laughed. I couldn’t imagine Jaejoong as the type of guy who would study.

“I’m not the same person when I’m at school. You don’t know, but I actually do work hard during school times. But since it’s the summer, I just like to have fun. I may not look like the type of guy who works hard, but I do. Well, at least most of the time.” He replied with a serious face.

“You being serious? I can’t really imagine that. All I can imagine is you courting girls.” I laughed.

“You’ll see. When you come to Oxford next year, I’ll make sure you see the real me.” He stared at me with the same serious expression. He looked like he meant it.

“What? So you’re going to help me on my first year of university? You’re going to take your parents words and help me? That doesn’t seem like you.” I laughed.

“I’m just trying to be nice. If you don’t like it, I’ll leave you alone.” He replied with a small pout. He wasn’t looking at me anymore. Instead, he was looking at the ground again.

“Fine. I’ll take your offer. Better to have someone than not have anyone at all.” I smiled.

“But why would you want to go all the way to Oxford in the first place? Why not go somewhere closer to home?” He asked me, getting curious.

“I don’t know. I applied for a couple different universities and got accepted to a few of them, but Oxford… attracts me. I don’t know how to explain it, but I have a feeling that I would like Oxford, so I chose it. The only thing I’ll be upset about is leaving my family. I’m going to be so far away from them. I won’t be able to eat my mom’s lasagna or listen to my dad’s stupid jokes.” I started to think about the times with my family.

“It’s always like that, but if you don’t try to be independent, you’ll have to always count on your parents. Every person has to be able to go through that phase. I had to be away from my family every year for school. I don’t get to see them much. I only go back to Korea when I have a holiday or if I have a semester break.” Jaejoong told me. He was being so deep. The way he talked was so different from his usual stupid self. I found myself being hypnotized by his voice.

“You’re so different…” I mumbled. Jaejoong turned to look at me and found me staring at him.

“What do you mean?” He looked at me with a confused expression.

“You’re not being your usual self today. You’re a lot nicer and you’re a lot more serious. I’m not used to you being like this.” I replied. Jaejoong gave a soft chuckle.

“You just don’t know me very well. I’m actually really serious about certain things.” He replied with a smirk. That infamous smirk that used to always make me angry, but the more I saw it, the more I started to like it.

“I’ll have to see about that when school starts.” I laughed.

“No worries. I’ll make sure you see me every day.” He exclaimed with a smile.

“Why would I want to see your stupid face every day? I have better things to do.” I said as a joke.

“You know you want to see me.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

I laughed and pushed him away. I finally understood why so many girls liked Jaejoong. I had to be honest. He had good looks, good body, and he’s a gentleman most of the time. Even though I didn’t like him at first, I found out that he wasn’t as bad as I thought. Being friends with him wouldn’t be so bad.

“Whatever. As long as you help me survive university, it’s all good.” I raised my pinky in front of him. He looked at me for a second before wrapping his pinky around mine with a smile.

“This is so childish.” He laughed and covered his mouth with his free hand.

“So? A promise is a promise. You better keep that promise, or else I’m going to hunt you down and slap you silly.” I gave him a threatening look.

“Alright, alright. I promise.” He backed away from me a bit with a small smile.

“Good!” I smiled.

We spent a couple last moments in the cave before leaving. Even though we got in by jumping down, there was another way that could take us back to the ground level. We walked towards a little trail inside the cave. We had to climb a couple rocks, but it was nothing terrible. After a couple minutes of walking and climbing, we finally made it back to the surface. Even though it was a lot brighter on ground level, I preferred the cave because it was so much more peaceful. We walked back to the car and Jaejoong drove the two of us back to the hotel.

That ended our trip for the day. I felt a lot more comfortable with Jaejoong after getting to know each other a bit more, but I always felt warm and my heart was beating so fast every time Jaejoong stared at me.

‘Damn... I'm falling for him.’ I thought to myself.