After slamming my door, I silently retreat to open it back again and listen to Jaejoong and my dad talk. I heard Jaejoong reason that he took me to dinner after picking me up from Jessica’s, which apparently wasn’t true, and then he asked my father not to ground me before saying goodbye. I close the door shut quietly as possible and ran to my window to sneak as Jaejoong got in his car and pulled out our driveway swiftly.

            I now completely understood what he had done. He had called my dad ahead so he wouldn’t worry where I was at night, after buying Jess’s story that I spent the night and whole day at her house. Jae has a point, my dad might pick me up at Jess and worry why I wasn’t there that could open the floodgates of sleeping in Jae’s mansion. He lied that he took me out to dinner, which was actually at his house. I smiled at myself for discovering Jaejoong’s practical and smart scheme. He may only be lazy, but he could be smart when he intends to.

            My dad knocked on my door, without waiting for my answer he entered. First with a warm set of smile in his face after talking with Jae, but when he saw me again it faltered. I narrowed my eyes.

            “Eun,” He started his lecture. “I want to know why you slept at Jessica’s and skipped a day in school— and had dinner with Jaejoong,” His face softened a little at the fact. It sure was my dad really like Jaejoong for whatever reason. “Without even telling me.” That’s reasonable enough.

            “It’s very unlike you.” He stated. “I know I’m becoming the adult here, and I admit, I don’t like it. But it’s the first time to worry about you. I know you can take care of yourself much better that I could with myself. I’m glad Jae called me, but why didn’t you? Then there’s the day at Jess, you have never even once missed a day in school. You always call when you’re out. I only expect you to keep on with that.” He ended his sermon, the exact type of sermon I pictured earlier when he hung up on me: predictable in my case.

            “I’m sorry Dad.” And that was all I could say because there really is nothing I could. I lied, I slept at a boy’s house, although the condition was different, but I did anyway. I missed a day in school, no doubt all my teachers would ask tomorrow. And worst, I got drunk. When I tell all these to my father, he might have fainted by now.   

            My dad used to think I was the goody-two-shoes. He had watched me like a speculator since my mother passed while I was seven, asking me to close my eyes when there’s a kissing scene from the TV, switching the channel when it’s too bloody, and begin with a threat about early teenage pregnancy when I inform him that a boy asks me out to the cinemas by nine pm. I knew it by then that I want him to know that I’ll behave and wouldn’t do those things he’s afraid I might do by being motherless.

            Strange, it was only to Jaejoong he wasn’t afraid of. And it was Jaejoong he should really be afraid of.

            He bent slightly to me to kiss my forehead awkwardly, a gesture he had long done when I was younger if I did something ridiculous. It gave me a melancholy feeling.

            “So how was your second date?” He began with a whole new different topic. I smiled at him.

            “Jaejoong was really nice. I was comfortable with him Dad.” I assured him, although it wasn’t the date he was referring to, it was safer to keep Jae’s scheme.

            “So is it the two of you then?” He bit his lower lip in frightened anticipation; every father’s fear.

            “Not yet… he said he was still courting me.” I looked away embarrassed.

            “Courting you? Since when did Jaejoong become traditional?”

            I agree with him. “I don’t know Dad, he used to ignore me remember? But now he was totally different, he’s polite he passed your Trigonometry test and he studies!” It felt good I was able to confess freely to my dad, my real best friend. My first date with Jaejoong was under a terrifying threat, although I felt warm with him as he held my hand, I had troubling doubts so I couldn’t share it to my father. It was good then that he didn’t ask.

            “I guess Jaejoong has really changed Eun, just give him more time to prove himself. He wouldn’t ask you out twice if he doesn’t like you. His mother doesn’t trust him as much about girls, but I’m sure he’s a good kid.”

            “Why do you like him so much Dad?” I played with the lace of the dress, glad that Dad would have thought it was Jessica’s.

            “Why not like him? He’s good-looking, tall and lean, wealthy and he has a genuine heart that only teachers could see.” Oh I get it, to my dad almost every dumb and lazy students still have something good to them although they’re about to be thrown off. Maybe that’s why he’d been in the school’s staff for twenty years now.

            “But you were afraid of me to have boyfriends before.” I reminded softly.

            “Seeing how you grew up now, you’re only seventeen but have the mind of an adult, I’ll always be proud of your decisions. I know your Mom will be so proud too.” He said the last quite bitterly. He touched my arm as he turned to leave.

            “Good night Dad.”

            “Good night Eun.” He said as he shut the door behind him.

            I took a long hot shower to relax my tensed joints, after being clothed; I soundlessly went downstairs to heat myself lasagna in the microwave. I ate it upstairs to my room with a carton of milk and the bag where Jae had placed my clothes from yester night to dump in the clothes bin. When I was done, I called Jaejoong. He seems to be expecting my call.

            “Hey,” He said. I could almost feel him smiling.

            “Thanks.” I said softly as I flopped down my bed and stretched my arms and legs.

            “So you heard huh? Did your dad ground you?”

            “Nope, I use to think he would but he didn’t. And thanks to your well-planed scheme!” I laughed.

            “I hope we’ll never do that again, shall we?” He sounded too formal but his voice was alluringly velvet. I might obey him if he asked to open the door so he could ransack our house.

            “I will never, at least with you companion.” I managed to choke.

            “Hmmm…. I like it this way.”

            “What do you mean?” I twirled a loose strand of my hair.

            “I like talking to you through the phone; your laugh sounds like wind chimes.” My heart stopped briefly, and then it beat back wildly against my ribs.

            He laughed. “I could almost see you blushing.”

            I still couldn’t speak, and I could imagine again Jae’s face when he smiled with his rare dimple.

            “ So Eun, I’ll pick you up from school tomorrow. Is that okay?”

            “Yeah,” I was still speechless.

            He laughed again then he said firmly; “I planned another scheme actually, to take you to and from school now.”

            “Why would you do that? There’s only about two blocks or so to school from my house.” As I found my voice, I fixed my alarm at the side of the bed, eventually excited about his another plan. I’m still not sure if what I will be heading to with Jaejoong would keep on violating every moral law.

            “I want to, and you promised to make it up to me after vomiting in my car.” He threatened kiddingly.

            “Maybe.”

            “Is that a yes or no?” He asked patiently.

            “Maybe….” I tried to test him.

            “Well then I’ll be there by eight. Bye So Eun, I miss you too.” He hung up then.

            We haven’t been apart for only an hour yet I smiled as I settled my blanket.

 I miss you too, badly. I thought.