13 - First Kiss

“Come on, let’s go there. Dara unnie is already looking for us.” Kiko whispered to Jiyong. They were watching Seung Hyun and Dara a few feet away, hiding themselves. Dara was looking around for them, her neck stretched. Jiyong holds back Kiko, his hand on her shoulder and leans down on to her for a whisper.

“Shhhh….we have to spy on them and give them time for themselves…” Jiyong whispers unto Kiko’s ear. She looks up at him with a flushed face then immediately looks over to Seung Hyun and Dara. She clears and just silently nods.

They see Seung Hyun leading Dara towards a painting. They look at it silently and they both sigh in unison, looking at the painting critically. Dara says something serious, Seung Hyun looks down at her then looks back at the painting. He says something with a serious face then Dara punches his arm. He laughs while nursing the arm Dara punched. Then Dara laughs with him.

“We’re like Alicia and Devlin in Notorious…” Jiyong whispers over to Kiko and chuckles.

“Huh?” Kiko looks at him with a clueless face. Jiyong freezes for a moment and then studies her face, his eyebrows narrowed, his eyes serious.

“The Alfred Hitchcock film we watched together while we were on Skype the other week.” Jiyong says, his face still serious.

“Oh right…I forgot…” Kiko feigns a laugh, trying to brush Jiyong off. Jiyong just eyes her silently.

“You know how much we both love Hitchcock’s spy movies…you told me before you memorized every one of them.” Jiyong says while looking at Dara and Seung Hyun.

“Oh yeah…Notorious is my favorite…” Kiko answers in a breathy whisper.

“I thought it was The 39 steps…” Jiyong steals a glance at her.

“Well you know that I have lots of favorite Hitchcock movies.” Kiko said straightaway.

“Right. You did say that.” Jiyong agrees.

After a minute of spying on them, Jiyong’s phone rings. He gets his phone and answers it.

“Yes hello?” Jiyong answers.

“Okay. Sure man we’d love too.” Jiyong says excitedly.

“Oh .” He looks at his phone.

“Man, I’ll call you right back. My phone’s about to die out.” Jiyong looks at his phone hopelessly.

“Hey, may I borrow your phone? I just need to call my friend back. We have this really important gig…” Jiyong asks Kiko urgently.

“Sure.” Kiko gives him her phone hesitantly.

“Thank you so much!!! You’re an angel!” Jiyong jumps, cups Kiko’s face and kisses her on both cheeks.

“I guess our spying game is over now. You can go back to Dara and Seung Hyun hyung while I make the call.” Jiyong smiles widely at Kiko.

“Okay.” Kiko smiles and then turns her back at Jiyong.

*****

“Where have you been? I’ve been looking over for you!” Dara asked Kiko worriedly. She lunged forward and embraced Kiko tightly.

“Relax unnie…we were just on the other side of the gallery.” Kiko laughs lightly, touched that Dara was worried about her.

“Anywhere with that jerkface is danger!” Dara responds with a vehement voice.

“Unnie, Jiyong is not a criminal. Don’t go over the top. He’s a nice guy.” Kiko pinches Dara’s cheeks and makes a funny face at her unnie.

“Oh by the way Seung Hyun oppa…Jiyong received a call earlier. He says something about a gig…Oh there he is…” Kiko points toward Jiyong who was walking their way. He stood in front of them with a serious look on his face. He was silently looking down.

“Are you okay man? You look a little tensed.” Seung Hyun taps Jiyong’s shoulder, waking him up from his reverie.

It took a moment before Jiyong responded. He looked deep in his thoughts.

“Jiyong…” Seung Hyun calls his name worriedly.

“Oh…hyung…” Jiyong looks at him.

“Are you alright man? You look like you’re not with us…” Seung Hyun says while tapping Jiyong’s back.

“I got a call from Dong Wook hyung…he’s having a house party…he wanted us to do a gig there tonight. He says the group 1TYM will be there…he might be able to hook us up…” Jiyong says absentmindedly.

“Are you serious!?” Seung Hyun asked, raising his voice in surprise. Dara punches his arm and hushes him.

“Why would I be joking about this hyung? It’s going to be our big break. If we do this right, we may finally get signed under a label. They can help us.” Jiyong says nervously.

“Oh man. We have to do this right.” Seung Hyun says in a low voice.

“Damn right we do.” Jiyong replies.

“I was pretty scared because you were so out of it earlier. Like you’ve seen a ghost or something.” Seung Hyun lets out a nervous laughter.

“Oi, Kiko. Thanks for letting me borrow your phone.” Jiyong hands her back the phone.

“It’s nothing…” Kiko replies softly.

“I’m sorry that we have to cut this art gallery thing short…you and Dara can come along with us to our gig. Dong Wook hyung says we can bring friends over…” Jiyong sincerely apologized while looking at Dara and Kiko.

“Let’s go home Kiko.” Dara whispered, shifting her weight from one foot to another.