“Mystery, mystery~”

“Shut up.”

“Mystery, mystery~”

“I told you to shut up.”

“Mystery, mystery~”

“Shut the hell up! You can’t sing!”

 

Jonghyun was so mean sometimes that it actually hurt.

So... we had been on the same vehicle for about ten minutes now and we barely left Busan. At that moment, I was currently dreading it.

“That’s not very nice, Jjong. It’s not like you’re any better.”

 

I was proud to say that I was the only one allowed to call this monster, ‘Jjong’. It was a nickname I gave him back when I couldn’t even pronounce his name properly, and it stuck to me ever since.  The only time I wasn’t allowed to call him by his nickname however was when we were at high school, which wasn’t a problem since I stopped talking to him in public after the end of middle school.

 

“Actually, I am.” He cockily answered, looking at me for a split second before turning back to the road. “And I know for sure that I’m far better than you. You sound like a dying mouse when you sing!”

“...” I replied with a blank look.

 

This is why I stopped talking to him.

 

“You know, criticising someone like that won’t make you any better!” I said to him in an almost growl-like manner. “It just proves what an you really are!”

“It’s a free country, Kyeo” Jonghyun responded. “I’m allowed to justify my opinions. And my opinion towards your singing is annoying and ‘dying mouse’-like.”

“You piss me off so much!” I snapped at him, turning my head to the windscreen and crossing my arms. “I can’t believe I have to spend the nextfive hours with you!”

 

Five hours is all you have to endure, Gyeo-wool... Just five hours... After five hours, we would be in Seoul and every trace of this devil will eventually disappear. I would finally escape the world I had been living with Jonghyun and be free! Oh, five hours, please come quickly!

 

“Just consider yourself lucky that I’m not charging you.”

I rolled my eyes in response. “How could I be lucky when I’m stuck with you?”

“Hence there’s another reason why you should consider yourself lucky.” He answered simply.

“Just shut up. The whole world doesn’t revolve around you!”

“I didn’t say it was.”

 

At the back of my mind, I knew that arguing with him wouldn’t make the time duration of the journey any shorter. I guess I’ll just go take a nap, seeing as I had to wake up at five in the morning just to sort out my belongings. Hopefully, by the time I wake up, we’d be in Seoul!

 

I reached for the power button of the radio and turned it off. “I’m going to sleep.” I muttered, leaning my back against the leather seat. “Don’t do anything to wake me up or I’ll kill you.”

“Whatever...” Jonghyun replied, showing no signs of care.

 

.

..

...

....

.....

 

“HERE I GO~! SCREAM MY LUNGS OUT AND TRY TO GET TO YOU~!”

 

OK, WHAT THE HELL?!

Why is the radio on high volume?!

 

My eyes opened and a furious expression instantly appeared on my face. I turned to my side to see Jonghyun singing his heart out along with the song.

 

“YOU ARE MY ONLY ONE~!”

 

“HEY!!!” I leaned over to his ear and screeched loudly. “I’M TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!!!”

 

“I’D LET GO~! BUT THERE’S JUST NO ONE WHO GETS ME LIKE YOU DO~!”

 

Click.

 

“HEY!” Jonghyun snapped. “Why did you turn off the radio?! I was enjoying that song!”

 

Click.

 

“MY ONLY ONE~”

 

Click.

 

“I’m trying to sleep!” I snapped back, turning my furious look into an icy glare. “I can’t sleep with you singing like you’re in some karaoke house!”

 

Click.

‘—mistakes let you down~’

 

“Too bad, it’s my car!” The latter retorted. “I get to choose if the radio should be on or not, okay?”

 

Click.

 

“Have some consideration you crazy child! Let me sleep or I’ll tell your mother about the tattoo you got last week!” Hopefully, that would shut him up.

 

Haha, Mrs. Kim has always been against Jonghyun’s desire of getting a tattoo. She thought they would just taint his ‘perfect’ skin and even lectured him about it. But last week, I saw him showing off a tattoo on his lower back to a couple of girls near our street.

 

Click.

‘I can’t hold on for—’

 

“She won’t see me for a whole year anyway so why does it matter?” The man answered back.  “And stop threatening me with all these ‘I’ll tell your mother’ threats! They stopped working when I turned thirteen!”

 

Click.

 

“Oh, really?” I glanced at him smugly. “Then how come when I threatened you earlier, you became putty on my hand?”

 

Click.

‘—whole life in the ground~’

 

“Will you stop turning the radio off?! You’ll break it!”

 

Click.

 

“Don’t change the subject, momma’s boy.” I mocked him with a smirk.

 

Click.

‘—I can’t get up when you’re gone~’

 

“Hey! Don’t call me that! I told you not to turn off the radio!” Jonghyun shouted with a glare. “If it breaks, you’re paying!”

 

Click.

 

“I wanna go to sleep!” I shouted back.

 

Click.

‘—breaking up~’

 

“I don’t care! I don’t want to be listening to your snores for the next five hours!”

 

Click.

 

“Deal with it!”

 

Click.

‘—giving up~’

 

“Shout at me again and you’re getting out of the car!”

 

Click.

Click.

‘—out—’

Click.

Click.

‘—know—’

Click.

Click.

 

The radio made some weird cracking noise which stiffened Jonghyun. I guess he really was serious about the radio breaking... Whoops.

 

 

 

“You—you...” He choked on his words.

 

Click. Click. Click.

 

He repeatedly pressed the power button.

 

Click. Click. Click.

 

But no music blared out from the speakers.

At least I can sleep peacefully now...

 

“YOU LITTLE MUTT!!!” The man screamed in fury, abruptly stopping the car in the middle of the road. “You broke it!”

My eyes widened at his remark. “Me?! You we’re the one that kept turning it on! It wasn’t my fault entirely! You’re the one to blame too!”

“You are paying for this!!!”

“What?!” The nerve of this guy, argh! “What happens if I don’t?”

Did he honestly think I would pay for something I didn’t technically break entirely? If we kept the radio off it wouldn’t have died!

“Then get out of my car!”

“No!”

He looked at me as if he had been slapped in the face. “And why not?”

“Because I’ll tell your mother!”