3 - Ugly

“I’ll have one Café Latte, make it grande and add an extra shot please. I’ll also have the blueberry cheesecake.” Dara ordered at the counter of the new coffee shop that opened just right by their campus. Her inquisitive eyes surveyed the surroundings and smelled the air.

“Cozy.”

She noted that the coffee shop had two different rooms; The first room called the Left Brain had a wallpaper of a Brazilian lady with a cup of coffee in one hand and a book on the other. The area had a huge sign of ‘We appreciate your silence’ and so Dara noticed that the customers on that area were students studying their lessons with music from an Iceland band Siguros playing in the background. The other room called the Right Brain room had an open space on the front side, the wallpaper of the room were filled with different travel hot spots all over the world, and they were playing a Boss nova music in the background. The customers in the said room were mostly people just hanging out.

Dara decided to sit in the Left Brain room so she could work on reviewing the said coffee shop and work on her paper for her Creative Writing subject due the following week. She sat on the far corner of the room and opened her laptop. Minutes later, the barista called out her name so she could pick up her order by the counter.

“Efficient and customer friendly baristas.” Dara was impressed on how the coffee shop worked. Although they didn’t have too many service crews, the people they chose were efficient. After thirty minutes, she was done posting the review on her site and so she logged on to her twitter account to post the link there. She checked her direct messages and saw several messages from G-Dragon a.k.a. Jiyong, Seung Hyun’s friend.

“@red_lotus: You can’t possibly compare Les Miserables from The Phantom of the Opera, they’re two different stories.”

“@red_lotus: Anne Hathaway was brilliant in the movie. Although I agree with you about Russell Crowe’s performance.”

“@red_lotus: I still think you were biased with your review. Probably you like The Phantom of the Opera more because that guy has an ugly face like yours.”

Dara shook her head on Jiyong’s last tweet. She replied.

“@IBGDRGN:  Uhm. Excuse me. In case you didn’t know, both are musicals. I was comparing the music not the stories.”  

“@IBGDRGN: I said that Anne did justice doing Fantine’s role.  All I said was there was just too much hype on shaving her hair. It was part of her job she got paid doing it.”

“@IBGDRGN: Judging by the fact that you have poor reading comprehension skills, I suggest you better have your eye checked. I need to make sure you’ll have 20/20 vision so when you see me in person you’ll take back everything you just said.”

Dara sighed. Kiko has told her many times not to reply to any more of Jiyong’s direct messages but she just couldn’t help herself. Because despite his below the belt nasty comments, he makes valid arguments and it’s been a long time since Dara found someone that was streetwise enough to contradict her reviews. Everyone has pretty much agreed to whatever she says on her site.

Dara stretched out and decided to open her file for her Creative Writing paper, she wore her headphones and worked on her paper. She didn’t notice the commotion that took place in the Left Brain room of the coffee shop until a guy looked over her shoulder and peered on her laptop screen.

“Yah!!!” Dara removed her headphones and was shocked to see Jiyong. Her heartbeat went crazy. Thank heavens that she already closed her blog site and twitter account less than a minute ago or else she would’ve been busted.

“Daria!!!” Jiyong was surprised to see her there.

“What the hell are you doing?” Dara closed her laptop and gave him a death glare. Jiyong looked down, obviously embarrassed.

“I thought you were someone else…” Jiyong mumbled. Dara sighed in relief. She knew very well that Jiyong was trying to catch Red Lotus red handed. She was almost found out by Jiyong.

“Well, indeed I am someone else because I’m not Daria. Now will you please get lost?”  Dara huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

“What are you working on?” Jiyong smiled and ignored her. He sat beside her and opened her laptop for her.

“Mind your own business!!!” Dara shouted and she closed the laptop again.

“Excuse me, if you can’t keep your voices down would you mind just transferring over to the other side? This area if for people who need some peace and quiet.” The guy sitting at the table beside them said in an irritated tone. Dara bowed apologetically, she almost jumped out of her skin when she felt Jiyong’s arms around her pulling her for an embrace.

“I’m sorry, my girlfriend Daria and I had a fight. She’s being stubborn.” Jiyong kissed Dara’s temple.

“Just please keep it down. Daria-shi just forgive him, he seems like a nice guy.” The guy turned away. Dara immediately elbowed Jiyong’s ribs, looking away from him and trying to hide the blush that crept on her cheeks the moment he kissed her.

“You’re all skin and bones and you elbow me like that. That freakin hurts.” Jiyong hissed.

“Take a deep breath Dara .Inhale, 1…2…3… Exhale 1…2…3…” Dara chanted. Jiyong was getting on her nerves.

“Do you happen to see an ugly girl with a laptop or tablet here?” Jiyong whispered while looking around the café. Dara’s heart flinched upon hearing Jiyong saying the word ugly. His words shouldn’t hurt her at all. As far as Dara is concerned, Jiyong is supposed to be irrelevant and yet every time he tweets Red Lotus ugly, it hurts her and now, hearing him say it and knowing he was referring to her as Red Lotus, it hurt a lot more.

Instead of answering him, Dara stood up and quickly placed her laptop in her