-24

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Yeah. Eat up, handsome."

22nd of January 2015

She gradually accepted his hand and she gave him something he could make up as a ‘nod’. “Truce.”

He leaned back on the floor again, their hands separating from one another as he got into position. He glanced up to her and saw how she hesitated on getting on him, as if she was truly afraid. Then again, he has noticed how she hasn’t been dancing for a while now. Ever since she took the key to the dance practice room, whenever he passed by, he noticed how it looked so empty. He saw that look in her eyes as she stared down on her own hands, as if she doubted herself.

With a soft exhale, Kai propped his legs down and sat up, lightly patting her knee.

She looked at him and mumbled, “W-Wait, sorry. I just need… I just need a few seconds.”

He patted her knee again, causing her to open her eyes out of slight irritation. She glanced at him and turned her back on him, “Wait… I’m not ready.”

He looked up to her, staring at her back and he swore that he could tell she was shaking; she was nervous, even. Even though he doesn’t know this, she’s been hiding for a long while and to attempt this pose in public… it was nerve wrecking. She’d never want to embarrass herself and as much as she hated to admit it, she didn’t want to embarrass him either.

His eyes focused on her back and he decided to speak up from the floor, his voice only loud enough for her to hear, “It doesn’t matter if you fail, you know?” He saw how her back tensed up and he knew she was listening.

“We all fail from time to time and it only makes us stronger. And within this one hour we have with each other, I’m sure we’ll be able to ace this pose by the end of the class. Hey, if we fail, I’ll buy you a cup of coffee later on.”

She let out a soft scoff out of amusement, looking over her shoulder to lock gazes with him, “A cup of coffee?”

He gave up on actually smiling, pulling out a bored face, “I’ll treat you lunch later, alright?”

After much thought, she decided well as she stood by him, turning around to face him. She gave a slight nod and her voice coming out in a whisper that only he could hear, “Let’s give it a try.”

“Wait! Not your back! Your lower back!” Kai exclaimed, trying to balance her on and though he need not hold onto her, he did. His hands were gripping onto her arms out of instinct, trying to stop her from shaking. She tried to look at him, tilting her head slightly the best way she can despite her back pressed on his feet holding her up, “What?”

“You’ll need to put your lower back on my feet! Not your back first!”

“Just-!“

And with a soft thud, she landed beside him as she fell off due to the imbalance from the two of them. He couldn’t help but just laugh, turning to his side where he gently nudged her with his knee at her arm considering she was upside down from him, “Are you alright?”

Her eyes opened with a flare when she swore she heard soft mumbles in the room. She was already paranoid but with that encouraging look that Kai was giving (shockingly), it drove her off to perform better. “We’re trying this again.”

He shrugged and leaned back on the floor, his legs straightened up into the air and his arms stretched out. He glanced at her when she stood up with a huff, “Whenever you’re ready.”

Everyone had grown tired of trying out the yoga poses because heck, they weren’t acrobats. Well, it wasn’t to that extent but you get the point. The other pairings in the room had grown tired of trying because all they’ll ever do is sprain a body part or hurt themselves from pulling a muscle or even falling to the floor like how Hee Young did a moment ago.

Even with all of that, Mr. Kang had never pushed them because he feels like determination comes from within and if they didn’t want to work for it, so be it. This was just a weekly assessment and they could view it as a past time or take it seriously.

In this occasion, Hee Young was taking it seriously.

After countless of times of falling down, strained muscles and aching body parts, the two still were going strong as they remained in the middle of the room. They had moved from their spot a moment ago when the rest wanted to take a breather by the walls. They had decided to try one last time before class would end, in the middle of the class where everyone could see. Oh, and if you were curious about Lay, don’t bother. That guy gave up thirty minutes after the class started when Soon Hae legitly gave him a kick on the face after trying to attempt their yoga pose.

“One last time. I know we can do it.” Kai breathed out, lying down on his back as he looked up to her.

She stared down on him and there was just this sparkle in his eyes that promised something. She didn’t know if it was because she’s remembered these pair of eyes since a long time ago or if it’s because it’s been too long since she’s taken a good look at his eyes. She swallowed, closing her eyes to let out a shaky exhale – everyone was looking.

Mr. Kang stood by the door, anxiously waiting to see if they could pull this off. If they succeed, they wouldn’t exactly be the first pair to succeed in attempting this/a yoga pose but they would be the first pair ever that Mr. Kang had anticipated for them to work together again; and succeed.

“We can do this, you know we can. Just shut everyone’s eyes from your view except mine.” He spoke up softly, lowering his feet down to take a good look at her and she pressed her lips together with a slight nod. She reached out to respond to his fist bump before she got into position of standing over his stomach. He lied down under her, looking up with anticipation.

“Ready?” She called out, looking down on him and he gave her a supportive smile, a thumb up in the air, “When you are.”

With a quiet yet trembling exhale of her breath, she stepped back and managed to lean back nicely on his feet. She trusted him and he knew she did when she allowed him to stretch his legs up further, lifting her up into the air with just his feet on the back of her torso. His hands were lingering by her side in case she’d fall but even the two could feel that she was much confident and stable this time. He had that usual smirk of his as he could feel her being calm and it was more than just an encouragement to carry on what she had to do.

Slowly yet surely, she attempted to balance herself properly before she would curl her legs up in order to hold onto them but it wasn’t time just yet. Kai could feel that her heartbeat threatened to quicken and he delicately placed his hands on her arms, his voice loud enough only for her to hear, “Don’t. Breathe… take it slow.”

She closed her eyes and felt his hands moving away to place them on the floor as he remained keeping her balanced. As she exhaled out calmly, her legs reached up and her hands held onto them. For at least five solid seconds, they’ve couldn’t actually believe that they had done it until there were rounds of applause coming from the whole room. She swore that in that moment she wasn’t able to breathe and she just froze at how she was. Kai noticed this, feeling that this was a rather foreign feeling for her where else he didn’t give a single thought about what was going on.

At the very least, it was safe to say that the reaction didn’t bother him because of the connection he had with…

Her.

When the applause died down, obviously done with fancying over them, Mr. Kang took the liberty in speaking up, “All in favor for these two to star in our school’s final dance?”

“Aye!” Most of them, and may it be repeated, most of them had agreed. There were rather a few who didn’t exactly agree nor was too fond with that suggestion.

“She comes in here and suddenly she’s someone so damned important.”

“Yeah… I know, right?”

“And if it wasn’t for her, I would’ve been-“

“Would’ve been what, exactly?” Another guy’s voice, not included in the conversation earlier had interrupted the two girls beside him. Soon Hae and someone beside her, Lay couldn’t exactly care who had tensed up, piping down on their conversation as Lay glared at the both of them. Lay raised a finger and pointed it at Soon Hae, “Need I remind you that you broke up with Kai. You ended things with him and you have no right to blame him for .”

Soon Hae parted her lips, attempting to defend herself but not when Lay was this aggressive. No.

It’s been ages since he’s seen Kai this dedicated – it’s been so long since he could finally see his friend being happy in doing something he loves when ages ago it was something torturous for him to do. He knows of the amount of hardships his friend had to go through and he knew it wasn’t easy. But if it’s because of this girl, if it’s because of Hee Young who was able to bring Kai back, there was no letting go of what he’s got at the moment.

Even if that means Lay being all defensive, that’s exactly what he’s going to do, for his friend.

“No. Don’t give me any bull excuses, Soon Hae. You may be my partner but that’s my brother you’re talking about out there. And I don’t give a flying if you have issues but don’t you even dare to disturb those two there.”

And when soft chatters had invaded the room along with other people standing up, Lay knew it was his cue to just leave. He got up and collected his items before making his way towards Kai and Hee Young standing by the side of the room, deciding what to do then on after along with a few pats of encouragement.

“Hah, you weren’t even that heavy. I could lift you up all day if I needed to.”

Hee Young rolled her eyes and lifted her bag up, “Don’t you ever get tired of talking?”

He raised a finger to point at her before pointing at the spot the two had displayed their hard work a moment ago, “That was one tough pose and you know it! That’s something to be proud about!”

She laughed, and he could tell he was sarcastic when she let her smile fade away, boring her eyes into his soul, “Excuse me then, Mr. Manly Legs. I’ll need to talk to Mr. Kang first, yeah? Try not to announce it to the whole world.”

“You freaking!-“ Kai wasn’t able to finish his words when Lay suddenly appeared in front of him, causing the latter to lower down his hand. He replaced in his eyes with a look of coming to his senses when he realized his friend was in front of him, “Oh, Lay, what’s up?”

Lay laughed as he looked over his shoulder, looking at Hee Young conversing with Mr. Kang before he faced front to smirk at Kai, “So this is what happens behind the scenes?”

Kai scoffed, reaching down for his bag before he slung it over his shoulder, “Yeah and believe me, it’s worse than what you just saw.”

Lay shrugged and shook his head, “But the two of you seemed so…”

“Connected?” Kai finished Lay’s sentence, finding it the right word to fit it in the incomplete sentence. Lay nodded with pursued lips, looking at Kai as the both of them walked over to the basket to retrieve their phones. “I mean, I felt it too.” Kai mumbled softly, causing Lay to find this the perfect moment to…

“Yah, you like her, don’t you?”

Kai gave a look of irritation, his eyes almost glaring at Lay, “Don’t with me.”

Lay had his signature grin once he had his phone in his hands, “Yah…! You definitely like her! Look at those cheeks of yours blushing!”

Kai scrunched his nose a bit as he lifted his thigh, threatening to kick it somewhere on Lay’s body, “You fu-!”

“Later, man!” Lay dashed out of the room in the next second, not taking the liberty in giving Kai giving him a smack. Kai lowered his thigh, planting his foot onto the floor before he shook his head. He looked into the basket and saw that as planned earlier, his phone was still on top of a specific someone’s phone at the bottom. He easily picked up both phones and slipped it into his pocket. “Let’s see how you’ll get this back from me…”

He had this suppressed grin on his face as he turned around but it soon evaporated when he was greeted with another person’s face; definitely not planned.

She looked up and gave a smile but all Kai could do was stare – what does one actually do in this position?

“You were great out there.”

Kai nodded blankly, muttering softly, “Yeah, I know.”

“She was good.” Soon Hae commented and Kai found this hard to believe.

Yeah ing right she was. Kai gave another nod instead, acknowledging her words, “That I know as well.”

She tried to carry on with more conversation and Kai could see that when her lips parted. However, that was not the only thing he caught when he swore he saw Hee Young glancing at him before she walked out of the room. Kai only had this thought: she forgot her phone….

Idiot.

He didn’t even hear her sentence as his eyes wandered off elsewhere, noticing that Hee Young made her way down the halls already. He had to hurry, anyway. The two had to spend the whole day together and there was no way he was going to let her just disappear. She looks like the kind that could spend a week a day without her cellphone.

“So… are you really joining the final dance?”

“Yeah… Funny I should mention this but I’ve got to go.” Kai muttered quickly, hurriedly brushing past her to make his way out of the room. He tugged onto his bag tight and chased after her down the hall, calling her after that, “Yah! Stop running! We had a deal!”

“I don’t remember!” The girl shouted, quickening her pace down the hall and once she made a right turn with Kai trailing behind her, the two had disappeared from the hall’s view.

There was this sound of disapproval as another stood there, crossing her arms with a venomous look in her eyes. Her friend patted her shoulder and took a quick glance at her face before continuously patting her, “Yah… are you okay?”

Soon Hae shook her head and sighed, “Look at him, running after her like he’s her new puppy. As if he’s her new play toy…”

Her friend removed her hand, taking a moment to think, “Well, she is quite pretty and it’s not like she’s done anything wron-…I should shut up, right?”

Soon Hae huffed and walked out of the room, completely unsatisfied yet somewhat fascinated with all of this. Her friend left behind was left stunned but in the next second, she didn’t really care. She crossed her arms this time and shook her head, “Just when will you grow up?”

“So where are we going for lunch?” Kai asked as he walked beside her down the park trail as the both of them had made it outside. She groaned and glanced at him, managing to give him a slight glare before the two continued to walk, “I don’t recall promising to have lunch with you.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t say no either.”

Kai was expecting something that would come across as rude or just plain sarcastic but he didn’t get that. What he got was her just stopping at where she was as she checked herself, her pockets and then her bags. He smirked discretely when he knew just what she was looking for.

“Crap… where’s-“

“Looking for this?” Kai cooed, lifting up something that definitely did not belong to him. She glanced up to notice that it was her phone in his hand that he held up and she pushed her bag back to behind her before she stood up straight. She glared at him and lifted her hand up, “Give it.”

He looked away, thinking for a moment before he put it behind his back, shaking his head, “I don’t think so.”

She rolled her eyes in agitation before she groaned out, “What the hell do you want?”

He smirked at her and used his head to point ahead of them, “Lunch, as per said and a whole day of just spending your time with,” He motioned his other hand at himself ceremoniously, “Me.”

“Order up, princess. You’ll need a lot of energy after this.”

She rolled her eyes and lifted up the menu to cover her face, mumbling softly, “Such a …”

He smirked and let her have the win, wanting to look down on the menu but there was this part in his pants that was vibrating. He realized that in his pocket her phone was vibrating and he easily took her phone out and widened his eyes at the number that popped up on the screen. He hurriedly got up and excused himself ‘politely’ and he made his way out of the restaurant.

She peeked from the menu and scoffed, “What the hell…”

Then, when she saw that he would be taking a while, she smirked and easily lifted her hand up, “JJ, could you come here? I’m ready to order.”

“Hello?” Kai answered the call, taking the authority to answer on Hee Young’s behalf.

The person on the other end widened their eyes, finding it hard to believe, “H-Hee Young? You’ve finally answered my call?”

Kai furrowed his eyebrows and shifted his back on the wall he was leaning on, shaking his head, “This is her friend speaking, may I know who you are?”

An exasperated sigh was left from the caller and already Kai had a bad feeling about this. All he could tell it was a woman-

“I’m her mother…”

Kai’s eyes widened, trying hard not to gasp as he quickly turned his head to the side, checking if Hee Young was the one coming out. He sighed and leaned back against the wall, as if he was hiding himself as he had just crossed the line – he did not expect this to be her mother considering this was an unknown number.

She doesn’t even save her mother’s number…?

“B-But may I know whose on the line? And could you possibly pass the phone to her? I really need to talk to her.”

Kai his lips nervously and felt guilty – he shouldn’t have answered this call in the first place.

“I… I don’t think I’m in the right position to do that. She’s… busy.”

Kai could tell that she was disappointed as if she has been trying for a long while now, “A-Ah… She is? W-Well… I’ll just try again another time. Thank you.”

Before Kai could even say anything, the phone had hung up and he closed his eyes out of guilt – he feels horrible but the other half of him was rather curious.

Who on Earth doesn’t save their own mother’s number?

He pulled the phone away from his ear and lowered the phone down where he wanted to check how many times this woman has exactly called Hee Young’s phone but he couldn’t when there was a phone lock. He tried pressing on the hint button and he definitely could not even decipher the hint – what more guessing on what the password was? He shook his head with a ‘tsk’ before putting her phone back into his pocket. He shifted closer towards the door and he peeked through the window on the door, finding it a perfect angle to see what she was doing at their table.

She was looking around, like any typical person would but then her eyes moved on over to the bracelet on her wrist. He could tell it had sentimental values based on the way her eyes locked onto it as if it was so damned precious to her. He saw that small smile she had, appreciating her prized possession before she sighed, moving her gaze away to the door where her eyes met with Kai’s.

Almost immediately, he played it cool with a grin, reentering the restaurant as if he had not been staring all this while.

She narrowed her eyes at him when he sat back down in front of her and he noticed she had already ordered everything on his behalf as well. He reached over for the glass cup and took a sip before putting the glass down, “Warm water?”

She nodded with a blank face, “Yeah.”

“Wait,” His eyebrows knitted together, “I didn’t tell you what I wanted to eat.”

“Oh, just wait, then. What I think you’ll like will come soon.”

He parted his lips to argue but then the waiter had already come with two plates of food, definitely the one in a bowl for Kai while she ordered a simple meal of sandwiches.

He stared at the bowl in confusion, finding it odd that she would call him a bowl of noodles. He took the pair of chopsticks in his hands before poking it, making sure it was cooked, “Noodles?”

She nodded as she reached for a piece of bread on her plate, “Yeah. Eat up, handsome.”

He knew it was just for fun, he knew she was messing around; but why did it get stuck in his head? He stared at her as if she had just said the cure for cancer, eyes wide as saucers, lips parted as if they were programmed to be like that. She merely took a bite on her sandwich before she put the bread down, raising an eyebrow, “What?”

He shook his head and looked down on his bowl, holding the spoon on his other hand before he got started on eating his meal.

He didn’t even get a proper spoon of his noodles and soup before he…

“What the hell did you call for me?!”

“I think it was spicy curry noodles.”

His eyes widened and he dropped the spoon, “What?”

“Oh, and I think I may have asked them to add a bit of their famous bird’s eye chili.”

“You have got to be ing me…” Kai muttered softly, looking down on his noodles that somehow resembled a monster.

“Maybe after a proper meal, yeah?” It was her turn to , finding it impossible to do so when she had placed him in a hard situation. What’s worse is that she didn’t even give him mercy in ordering a cold drink; she ordered warm water. You may think Kai could've easily just ordered another meal or a cold drink to accompany him but... it was impossible when she had planned things out to make it impossible to do so.

God bless Kai indeed.