ii. starlight, starbright: 하나
peony-scented morningsSoojung has always disliked boys. Sure, she's had a few crushes here and there, a few heartbreaks (one-sided love, in which she just snorts and changes the topic whenever her friends try to bring it up) but that was it. She just doesn't see them as well..... men. Or people whom you have a special 'interest' for. Sure, she has a lot of guy friends; Danny (her neighbor whom she has known since forever), Yifan, the smooth Chinese barista that not one of her girl friends has ever failed to swoon over (tall, handsome plus he works out and duh, makes great coffee other than being an awesome chef, surprise surprise, but to her he's just a big dork whom she adores dearly as a big brother) and the Cheongdam Beatles (what her wannabe rockstar band classmates Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, Baekhyun and Jongdae call themselves) but they're just friends. And she's pretty affirmative that they'll stay that way forever. Soojung just doesn't get why her friends gush over the boys from the class next door. She could not understand why she didn't dare look at them in the eye, and would just let her silky ravenous locks hide her face whenever she passes a whole crowd of them either. It's not that she has anything against them or anything, but she's just uninterested. But above all, and not-so-deep in her heart, Jung Soojung is just one of those hopeless romantics who dreams of bumping into mysterious strangers in coffee shops and bookstores. Ones who help pick up the fallen stack of books that she's been carrying and finds mutual interest in the genre of books she reads. Ones whom she accidentally bumps into and spills hot coffee on his clean shirt and feels electricity the moment their eyes meet as his warm hands brush against hers while she frantically rushes to search her handbag for that packet of tissues. Her mother believes she's been watching too many dramas and reads countless numbers of those chic-lit novels, but that's what Soojung wants to believe in. She wants her perfect man to literally sweep her off her feet and make her feel like Cinderella and believes that one day she might just find someone exactly like Noah from The Notebook, which is by far her favorite romance novel of all time. She'd hate to face reality and would just ignore whatever every one around her says because she'll believe in what she wants to. And she believes that every great love starts with a great story. And that story, would eventually unfold itself in front of her.
♥
"One shrimp kimbap, but leave out the pickled radish please. And don't bother to slice it. I like to eat it whole." Who the heck asks to leave out pickled radish in kimbap? And eats it whole?! Soojung thought as the person in front of her placed his order. She shot him a judging look from behind and the shopkeeper ahjumma laughed.
"Different people have different tastes, Soojung. Are you here for the usual?" Soojung nodded as she hungrily waited for her shrimp kimbap, with extra pickled radish. It was almost 3pm, and she hasn't had anything to eat since morning. For some reason the ahjumma's stall was packed today, too. Soojung bit her lips nervously as she heard her own stomach grumble. The autumn chill crept onto her spine and she grew impatient, not to mention how starving she was. She rushed to pay her order after hearing the ahjumma call out "shrimp" and "radish", assuming that the guy who ordered shrimp kimbap before her already paid his since she no longer saw any signs of him inside the shop.
♥
Jongin slowly unwrapped the tin foil of his kimbap roll, taking a bite right away. He was hungry after a day's work at his uncle's hardware store. A dreaded briny taste and crunchy texture startled his tastebuds as he immediately spat out the chewed contents onto a piece of tissue paper. Crap! Jongin could've sworn he requested for the pickled radish to be left out. He thought it was a waste of him to throw it away so he decided to just return to the shop and just ask the ahjumma to give it to some hungry homeless person for free or something. A little 'charity' won't hurt, he guessed.
"Ahjumma, why isn't there any radish in my kimbap?" Soojung whined before realizing that the darned guy probably took hers in mistake and giggled to herself at the thought of him opening the kimbap to discover that he took the wrong order. Serves him right for being too picky. She was about to take a last bite of the radish-less kimbap when she saw him entering the shop holding a plastic bag which she reckons contains the seaweed rice roll.
"I'm sorry, but I think my order got mistaken for someone else's." she heard him say, "I'm allergic to radish, see. And I sorta took a small bite of this kimbap. But I think it's a waste for me to throw it away so could you please just give it for free to anyone?" in which the ahjumma happily agreed.
"I'll pay for it." Soojung interrupted as the guy proceeded to hand three 1000 won notes for his freshly-prepared, radish-less kimbap. "I-I sorta finished what was supposed to be your meal," which he replied her with a puzzled look. "The order got mixed up." she explained. He shot her an are-you-sure look, and she nodded earnestly. "Sorry for the inconvenience!" she yelled as he left. He only raised a hand in gratitude and her eyes just trailed after him. Peculiar lad. She thought and even wondered if he was a foreigner because of the chocolaty hue of his skin. Plus the fact that she's never seen him around the neighborhood anywhere.
Whatever.
♥
"So he just left like that?" Chanyeol exclaimed loudly in his deep, booming voice loud enough for the whole bar to hear. He shook his head. "That's just plain- freaky."
Soojung swallowed the last remnants of her barbecued pork belly burger, wiping the crumbs of the sesame bun with her fingers.
"I know, right."
It was the third Sunday of the month, the day specially reserved for 'CB Night', and the time where Soojung would watch her guy friends aka the Cheongdam Beatles playing gigs at Kraze, the neighborhood bar. They would order super greasy food, super thick milkshakes and just gossip over anything and just everything. They were like brothers to her, and she was happy just to be herself around those four boys. Baekhyun just got back from his trip to New York too, and a gathering seemed like the perfect idea.
"If I were you I wouldn't have paid, geez." Jongdae rolled his eyes. Kyungsoo nodded, his round eyes widening in bewilderment. "You shouldn't be paying for strangers, Sooj. You never know guys these days. I think you should be more careful. I think Baek agrees with me too. Right, Baek?" Baekhyun nodded.
"Yeah, who knows if he might hit on you or something." he said. Soojung snatched his vanilla milkshake and took a sip. "That's silly. Dude didn't even say a word!" she imitated the stranger's gestures and all of them laughed. Soon the subject quickly changed to Kyungsoo's interest in taking a degree in the culinary arts as his major and opening a restaurant in the future. "can you hire me as the manager, then?" Chanyeol asked which led to a short argument between him and Jongdae because the other wants to be manager too. Baekhyun then offered Soojung a ride home, as usual.
"Thanks for the treat, Yeol!"
"No biggie!"
"See y'all later!"
Baekhyun was strangely quiet tonight, Soojung noticed. He would usually crack up stupid jokes with Chanyeol, and add fuel to Kyungsoo and Jongdae's usual fire. "Are you okay, Baek?" she asked as they rode along the streets of Seoul. "You seem quieter than usual."
"Nah, I'm alright. I think I got my vocal chords strained," he joked.
"Was NYC fun?" Soojung asked. "Cause Jess kept bragging about it after I told her that you went." she hasn't seen him in a month, and he seems so different already. Probably the jetlag. Or the slight flecks of hair on his upper lip that made him look like he's in his mid-twenties.
"It was.... Okay. But it lacked something." he grinned, turning his gaze on her. "I think it was because I missed you guys too much. I missed you most, Sooj." Soojung smacked him on the arm. "That's gross. Did you get possessed by some Broadway phantom or something? The sudden cheese whiz, pfft." she snorted. She pestered him to tell her more about the city that never sleeps and just listened with interest as he told her about how he spent his weekends watching underground gigs - a break from the theatrical he faces everyday. How extremely good and buttery were the pretzels he had, and that she should totally come with him next time.
"Hey, Soojung?" Baekhyun called as Soojung skipped towards the steps of her house. She stopped to a halt and turned around.
"I really meant it when I said I miss you!" he yelled and drove off.
Soojung raised an eyebrow. O-kay. She prayed that Baekhyun returns to his original self the next time she sees him because he was starting to give her goosebumps.
♥
"What is this, a scene from some Disney Channel original movie?" Kyungsoo screeched dramatically. The rest gave him weird looks as he dived into another pack of those healthy chips he likes to eat. "What? Don't those kinda movies have the guy friend having a crush on his best friend, or vice versa and-"
"I was about to judge you for mentioning 'Disney Channel', but oh, apparently you seem to miss CB Nights because um, I don't know.. you actually watch that ?" Jongdae sighed heavily. Kyungsoo put a v-sign next to his right eye and grinned cutely. "Da-het! No one is ever too old for Disney Channel original movies."
"Whatever. So Baek," Jongdae started as Chanyeol piled a large bowl of nacho chips with jalapeño cheese sauce, "what are you going to do about it?"
"Are you gonna like, confess to her?" Chanyeol asked, between mouthfuls of hot, cheesy nachos. "Cause knowing Sooj..." he shrugged. "I don't know. Who knows if she might be feeling the same way about you but-" he chugged down half a can of Coke empty.
"-I doubt she would." Baekhyun finished Chanyeol's sentence. I know.
♥
"Hey, pickled radish!" Jongin called after the familiar-looking girl as he saw her with a bunch of guys getting ice creams. All of them turned, the girl's eyes meeting his before turning away. He scurried towards them, ignoring the looks of her male entourage.
"I'll pay for your ice cream," he offered breathlessly, putting one hand on Soojung's shoulder to stop her from reaching out for her wallet. One of her friends grabbed him in the wrist threateningly.
"She doesn't need strangers like you to pay for her," he said through gritted teeth. "And we don't need excess company, thanks." Chanyeol, Kyungsoo and Jongdae looked at each other.
"It's okay, Baekhyun." Soojung smiled apologetically to Jongin. "I paid for his kimbap last time." Baekhyun sure was overreacting, and she felt a little embarrassed. Jongin invited her to have coffee with him, in which she agreed (there's nothing wrong about making new friends, right?) and suggested that they go to Honey B since she gets to have anything there for free. Yifan'll compromise.
"Kim Jongin." he smiled as they settled down by themselves on one of the hexagonal orange chairs inside the cafe, minus the company of Soojung's bodyguards whom she brushed off earlier, saying that she's just going to have a short chat with him etcetera etcetera. That Baekhyun guy seemed pretty jealous of him, for some reason.
"I'm sorry about that," Soojung slouched in her seat, her mint-chocolate ice cream. "I guess my friends got a little freaked out because I don't really talk to guys that much. Thanks for the ice cream, by the way. You didn't really have to." she tore off the paper wrapper of her ice cream cone, revealing the sugary crispiness underneath and bit it, letting the bitter sweetness of melted chocolate ooze inside as Jongin observed her.
"Ah, you can just call me Soojung. Are you new around here?" Soojung asked after stashing a crumpled mass of the ice cream wrapper inside her jacket's pocket. "You look pretty foreign I almost mistook you as a tourist or something."
Jongin ruffled his hair. I should get it trimmed, he thinks. The length almost covered his eyes. "Nah. Been here all my life. Parents um, left me when I was 10, and I never went to school ever since. Started to work with my uncle when I was 14, and here I am." he explained.
So that's why she's never seen him at school. Soojung bit her lip. She shouldn't have asked. "My dad left me when I was 10 too." she said finally. "Heard them yelling. It was a day before my birthday. Woke up next morning and he was gone. I'm pretty cool with it though," she added casually. She's been pretty laid-back so far, and Jongin liked how comfortable he already was talking to her.
"Do you go to college?"
"I'll be starting next spring. You?"
Jongin just grinned and shook his head. "My sister says I should, but I don't think I'm interested just yet. I've no clue on what to pursue.. , huh." he played with his fingers and stretched a little. Soojung pursed her lips.
"I'm sure you have something you have the slightest interest in!"
Jongin turned to look at her. "I like to dance." he said with a serious expression that caused Soojung to burst in laughter. He noticed that she has a mole on her cheek, and that her teeth were in neat rows.
"You're kidding me."
"Am not. I can show you." he replied, double-jerking his eyebrows. "I'm not a half-bad dancer, either." Soojung cackled when Jongin started to randomly groove along to the music that was playing inside the queer little cafe.
"You do know that people are watching us, right." Soojung ran her fingers through her hair and mischievously pretended to cover her face with it. "You're embarrassing. I don't think I wanna be friends with you." she stuck out a pink tongue.
"What are you, six?"
Soojung was about to open in reply when she felt her head yank upwards and a very large hand started messing her hair and suffocating her in his arms' grip.
"Yifan!" she screeched. The tall, blonde guy broke out in huge bellows of laughter and frowned as he eyed Jongin, who noticed that the possibly-escaped-from-some-basketball-manga guy was speaking - or rather slurring his Korean in an accent so he must be from somewhere. Japan? Didn't seem like it. Probably China. And he was wearing the same uniform as the one Jongin saw the other baristas wear too, with a gold nametag pinned on the right side of his chest but this one on his ear instead; as an earring. Those were in trend these days. Wu Yifan, it read. Boyfriend?
"I'm Soojung's brother," Jongin's eyes started to trail across his features, then Soojung's. not the slightest bit alike. He was really good-looking, though. Almost ethereal. "well, we've known each other long enough to be considered siblings, anyway. She's my baby, aren't you Doojungie?" he cooed as Soojung pulled a disgusted look. "Anyways, mess with her, and you mess with me." Yifan eyed the stranger suspiciously.
"Jongin." Jongin introduced himself, offering his hand for a shake but Yifan just remained his position of crossing his long arms across his chest.
"I'll be keeping an eye on you."
"Why. Is. Everybody. Like. This." Soojung squirmed in her seat, obviously annoyed, yet a little amused at how freaked-out Jongin's expression was. Yifan winked.
a/n: THREE-SHOT! Enjoy :)
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