Chapter 6

Ever since the other time he fed the fishes, I will always give him all the fish food. Talking to the fishes and feeding them was what I find most relaxing. However, just watching him feeds them seems to be more than just calming. It has this unexplainable feeling and I can find no words to describe it at all. To be honest, it is something that I have yet to experience and I really like this unfamiliarity.

The juvenile chuckling sound that comes out naturally whenever the koi touches his hand, the child-like expression he has on his face brings out more charm and the light that seems to be shining only on him. It feels like this is how he should be behaving, this is who he should be. The dark mysterious aura doesn’t suit him at all. I watch how his hair turns brown under the dim light; it looks so silky that my hands itched to have a touch of it.

“Your fringe has grown longer,” as if trying to sweep his fringe away, I reach it out unknowingly. And before I know what I am doing exactly, he looks up this time and directs his bright smile at me.

“Here,” he grabs onto my retracting hand and shovels some fish food into my hand. “You shouldn’t always let me do whatever I want. You should tell me if you want to feed them too!”

He then goes on to pull my hand and places it down into the water with his free hand. With the same smile shining at me, “Isn’t it more fun if we feed them together?”

My lips break into a hearty smile and without words; we finished feeding the food in the shortest time. And I can proudly assume that it is the happiest time we had together.

As soon as we have our hands cleaned, we lie against the tree trunk like what usually do. Wait, correction – it shouldn’t be exactly what we do usually. We used to lie at different ends yet now; we are lying against the bark with the two of us sitting side by side. Something has changed. I am sure of it and I know that he definitely figures that out too. With little gestures, we become more considerate and bearing towards each other. The gazes through our eyes show what we feel and through actions, we discover that we are now friends, friends that eventually grew close with time.

“Can I ask you a question?” I timidly ask.

“You used to ask whatever you like in the past. Now you’re asking if you could ask?” he snickers out loud.

I elbow him lightly, “I’m serious, okay?”

“Fine, fine.” He speaks up, defeated.

“Why didn’t you join any club activities?” I turn my head towards him, “you can have fun there instead of hiding here all the time.”

He too, turns his head towards me, “I had fun here too.”

“It’s different!” I retort, “I mean, you can make more friends there.”

“So?”

“What ‘so?’?” I snort.

His eyes darken almost immediately and he turns his head back front. “I told you before, I couldn’t join any.” I hear him sighing as he continues, “I cannot really do vigorous sports to injure myself.”

I feel regret after spitting out at him like that. Perhaps I am too used to his happy self that I can’t bring myself to see him being all dejected and isolated again. “You want to join my club?”

His eyebrows immediately move higher and I could nearly see his eyes sparkle again.

“Well, it might be boring for you though.”

“What kind of club?”

“Sign Language.”

❧

“Lee Jieun!”

I wince my eyes slightly and give an awkward smile. “Hi.”

“You finally turn up!” Jongdae ruffles my hair hard. “And you brought someone with you?”

I hurriedly tidy up my hair and push Wooyoung who stands behind to the front, “I’m gonna offer you a new member, Jang Wooyoung, 3rd year.”

After watching how still Wooyoung is beside me, I nudge him and he bows down respectfully, “Hi, I’m Jang Wooyoung. Nice to meet you.”

“Oh, Jieun-ah, you’re definitely one of my favourite members! You even brought such a handsome looking guy to boost the popularity of our club.” He beams out cheerfully.

“So, sunbae, my attendance…” I stop halfway through my speech and give him the look. In return, he shoots a wink at me and promises, “of course, I know what to do.”

“Welcome to the club, I’m Kim Jongdae, president of the club.” He then takes out his hand and shake it with Wooyoung’s one before entering the club room.

Wooyoung holds up a bizarre look while I simply shrug it off and pulls him in. In all honesty, our club is practically unknown in the school. Excluding the newly joined Wooyoung, we only have five of us. If it isn’t for Jongdae who pulled me in with unfulfilled promises, the club could have been taken off the listing last year.

❧

I am surprised how fast the time past. Astounded is the word that I felt when the bell ringed. It didn’t even feel like it has been three hours. It is probably the first time that I feel that club activities can be this interesting. I steal a glance at Wooyoung who is busy practicing hand signs. Seeing how terribly focus he is in learning the new language triggers the thought that bringing him here could be the most wonderful thing that I’ve done.

It is when I am correcting Wooyoung’s hand signals; an all too familiar voice appears.

“Jieun! I can’t believe that you actually attend club activities!”

Sanghyun sits right in front of me and with the side of my eyes, I catch him doing weird faces. Wooyoung drops his hands right after he sits in front of us and he gives a slight bow.

“Hi,” Sanghyun speaks up, seemingly greeting Wooyoung.

With the disturbance caused, I jerk up my head and make a ‘tsk’ sound. “Park Sanghyun!”

“Wah,” he makes an exaggerating sound and continues, “You’re teaching hand signs. This is unbelievable!”

“Problem?” I reply rudely and make another face.

He rolls his eyes and stands up from his seat, “have you seen the text message from your mother?”

“What text message?” I ask dully.

“Check your phone!” he hisses at me which earns a glare from me.

I take out my phone from my bag and read the message stated. “Oh,” I say surprisingly, “what’s the occasion?”

“How could you forget?” he says with the same annoying tone.

“What?” like a rude brat, the stated word comes off like a statement rather than a question.

“Never mind,” he brushes off and snatches my bag over, “lets’ go.”

“Yah!” I retort out loudly after seeing him walking out of the door. I turn towards Wooyoung. “Hey, gotta go. See you tomorrow!”

I grip onto my phone and right before I leave, I steal a quick glance at him. Perhaps I see it wrongly but on his face hang an expression that I have never seen before. His brows crease deeply, fist slightly clenches and with invisible fumes steaming out from his head or it could be I comprehend wrongly. But is that jealousy I see?
 

Ѽ:

I really enjoyed writing this chapter so much but when 0000 strikes, I head to search for aiyu's modern times album songs and I was kind of distracted cos I can barely have my excitement contain. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I do and guys, it's time to start ordering aiyu's album cos it could be truly the best album of the year. Gosh, I'm so into the music now I can't. Will edit the chapter tomorrow or something cos I can't concentrate in writing now lol.