Ji Hoo’s POV

Ji Hoo was going through the grief of losing love for the third time on his own terms. His friends tried to comfort him, tried to make him share what he was feeling, but he shut them out.

Mandy called him a few times on his cell phone, but he never talked for more than 5-10 seconds, saying that he was busy with something.

“Should we tell her?” Ga Eul suggested one day the whole gang was gathered together.

“No, there must be a reason why Sunbae didn’t tell her himself” Jan Di said

“But what is it? We have to find out. I cannot see him like this anymore” Jun Pyo said

The next weekend, the guest room at Ji Hoo’s house was getting stocked with someone’s personal stuff. His Harbeoji was moving in with him. Ji Hoo had taken Mandy’s advice and had convinced his grandfather to move in with him so that he could take better care of him. Ji Hoo’s other reason for taking this action was that he thought that if he busied himself with some other task, he wouldn’t even have time to think about Mandy and eventually he might get over her.

“So is it all done now?” Ji Hoo asked the maids

“Yes sir” one of them bowed to him formally and they all left the room in a line.

Ji Hoo stood there and checked if everything was all right and memories of Mandy’s stay there came rushing back to him

He saw her sleeping there on the her cotton filled mattress, smiling lightly or frowning, depending on the dream she might be having; her watching movies on TV with subtitles and laughing; her reciting her daily prayers with her head covered by a translucent dupatta, which lightly danced and touched her cheeks when she moved her head even a little.

He snapped out of his visions when his phone rang. It was Mandy.

“Hey, I’m a little busy right now; I’ll call you later ok. Bye” he said and was about to hang up the phone when Mandy screamed.

“Hello, hello, Mandy; what happened, hello?” he shouted into his phone

“Nothing happened” Mandy said from the other end “had to do that to get your attention”

Ji Hoo smiled a bit when he heard her laugh.

“Why have you been avoiding my calls?” Mandy asked straightforwardly

“I haven’t; I’ve just been…”

“Busy?” Mandy completed his sentence “Dude, stop lying ok. You are avoiding me and that’s not a speculation but a fact. Now I don’t know what I did so wrong that you are giving me the cold shoulder, but I think now is a good time to tell you that no matter how much you avoid me, I’m not going to let you go. Call me selfish, call me mean, call me anything you want, but you are not getting away from me; just wanted to tell you that. Now you can go back to whatever you were doing before I called you, bye” she said and hung up before a reply.

Ji Hoo just kept staring at the phone. He just gave a frustrated sigh and put the phone back in his pocket. He then exited the room and went to fetch his Harbeoji from the clinic.

“Aish! These knees are killing me” Ji Hoo’s grandfather exclaimed as Ji Hoo helped him to the couch.

“Why don’t you consult someone and take some medicine for them” Ji Hoo said

“It’s not something that can be ailed easily, it is old age. And how would it seem; a doctor going to another one for medication? I can treat myself just fine” his Harbeoji said

Ji Hoo shook his head and smiled

“What are you laughing about?”

“You two are so similar; she also said that she could take care of herself…” Ji Hoo started saying with a good mood but slowly his expression into one of gloom

“You are talking about Mandy right?” the old man asked

Ji Hoo slowly nodded with his head facing down.

“She is a sweet girl” Harbeoji smiled

At dinner, Ji Hoo kept opening the ipad and looked at the video icon for a while then kept locking the device. He repeated this procedure many times but his grandfather didn’t comment at it. Many days passed in the same way and Ji Hoo was slowly convincing his heart to move on. His grandfather noticed Ji Hoo repeating the locking/unlocking procedure of the device and one day he said what was on his mind.

“Why don’t you open it and see for yourself what she said to you” he said to Ji Hoo “Your feelings will not rest until you have got some kind of closure”

Ji Hoo gave out a deep breath and clicked on the icon. The video started and there was Mandy sitting in the same background as she had been in all the other videos.

“Hey Babu; sorry for going away the way I did. I am going to miss you so much when I go back. So that’s why I left these for you and everyone else, so that you could contact me. Video chat is just so much better than the regular phone call and text messages; so boring. So anyways, just wanted to thank you for everything you did for me this past year. I seriously don’t know how I would have survived here without you. So once again thank you so much. You are the sweetest, most sincere and loving guy I’ve ever met, that’s why I pray that you find someone for yourself. But don’t you dare forget me when you get a new girlfriend, which is going to be soon I hope, because I think it will be best for Harbeoji that you settle down fast; it’ll take a load off his shoulders. And take care of him too, and take him to a specialist to get his knees checked, my home remedy is only going to give him relief so long. And I know that becoming a doctor was never your first choice and that you’d rather become a musician/composer, but keep that up as a hobby.” she winked at him “And I know that life has been tough on till now, but I hope and I pray that from now on, you’ll never have to be upset. Bye Babu, love you” she blew a kiss and then the screen went blank.

“Why didn’t you tell her?” his Harbeoji asked Ji Hoo when tears started to slowly flow from his eyes

“How could I? She trusted me; if I told her how I felt, I don’t know how she would’ve reacted. And she wasn’t going to accept my proposal anyways”

“Why?”

“Her family background doesn’t accept love affairs happily; and that is what matters most to her, to not become estranged with her family. She told me once that her family was the reason she didn’t want to fall in love.”

“But…”

“There are no buts to that condition Harbeoji; it is set in stone. That is why I didn’t want to watch that video, I didn’t want to torture myself more with something which doesn’t even have the possibility of turning into reality.”

“But you cannot ignore her for long; you should not give her the punishment of a crime she didn’t commit”

“I know that” Ji Hoo said as he nodded his head “That’s why I’m going to call her now”

“You can always do this some other time” his grandfather suggested

“No, there is no other time like the present; and it’s been long enough anyways. It’s time that I stopped being so selfish” Ji Hoo said and dialed Mandy’s number.

She picked after three rings

“You are alive!” Mandy greeted him

“Yes, I’m alive” Ji Hoo smiled to himself

“So, why did you call me?”

“Didn’t know I get to call you only because of a reason”

“The thing is that you haven’t called me once since I left; so yeah, it’s a little hard to imagine you calling without a reason”

“Sorry about that, just was a little busy with something”

“For a whole month?!”

“I said sorry; why are you not forgiving me like you do every time?” he asked like a little kid

“You know that I cannot stay angry with you for long, but this was the limit”

“Mandy, I’m sho soorrryy” Ji Hoo said and Mandy laughed out

“You know just the way to apologize” Mandy said smiling

“So what are you doing?”

“Driving”

“And you are talking on the phone? Are you mad? I’m hanging up; call me when you reach where you are going”

“Will you just chill, there is a thing called Bluetooth through which you can connect your phone to an earpiece” Mandy said

“Sarcasm doesn’t suit you”

“Yeah, I’ve been told so before”

“So, you know how to drive. Why didn’t you drive around here?”

“I only know how to drive a right hand wheeler; left hand wheelers unnerve me”

“Oh, right; so where are you going?”

“I’m going back home; I was at a camp site of mum’s NGO”

“You joined it already?”

“Yep as planned”

“So how many patients have you treated yet?”

“No patients just now, I’m just an intern right now, under training”

“Oh, right; so how long do you have to do that?”

“At least a year”

“Hmmn, so how far was the camp from your place?”

“It was a little far, but I’ve just parked in my garage; and now I’m getting out of my car”

“Which car do you have?”

“Right now I have five cars which nobody else uses; but there are others that are the common ones and then there are the ones that only dad uses”

“You have five cars? What do you need five cars for?”

“There is a different car for different purpose; like right now I was driving a Range Rover coz it has more space for the supplies and can be used on rough terrain.”

“So what others do you have?”

“I have a Mini Cooper, just like yours, but it is in purple. I have a Maserati car again in purple, I also have an Audi convertible and Didi and Papa gifted me a car as my graduation present. So that makes it five in total.”

“Which car did you get as a gift?”

“It’s not a luxury car; it was the car I learnt to drive on, a very basic car; they had it redone and customized to my tastes. I actually sent you pictures of her”

“Her?”

“I’m very attached to Noorie, the car; so it was a very special gift. Hey listen, I’ll call you back okay?”

“What happened?” Ji Hoo asked worried

“Nothing, there are some guests at home, so I’ll talk to you later ok. Bye” and she hung up

“What did she say?” his grandfather asked

“Nothing, just usual”

“I don’t know what ‘the usual’ is for you kids these days” Harbeoji stated and Ji Hoo recalled his whole conversation with Mandy.

Next day Mandy didn’t call him back and when he called himself, she told him she was busy and would call him when she got free. She didn’t call him for a two more days and he didn’t call her too, thinking that something really important must’ve sprung up that she didn’t call him. He asked others if they had heard from her and Woo Bin said that he had talked to Niya and she had said that there were some important guests visiting Mandy and her family.

Ji Hoo was sitting in the F4 lounge and listening to music on his headphones. Five days had passed since he last talked to Mandy. He had started up on his old routine and was coping well. The scene around him was one he had witnessed too many a times a year before; Jan Di and Jun Pyo competing in videogames, Ga Eul cheering them on and Yi Jung and Woo Bin playing pool. Suddenly there was a commotion and everyone gathered around the little coffee table. Jan Di gestured to Ji Hoo to come join them. Mandy had called one of them on video chat.

“Hey guys” Mandy said in a tired voice

“Unnie, what happened? Why do look so weak?” Jan Di asked

“Nothing, I’m just a little tired. I’ve just returned from a two day medical camp. I’m so sorry I didn’t call you guys, I’ve just been a little busy.”

“What rubbish are you talking about” Jun Pyo silenced her

“But I do have to tell you guys a news”

“What is it?” asked the ever curious Ga Eul

“Just some news that I have to tell you guys, but it’ll only be full effect if the parcel is there.”

“What parcel?” Yi Jung asked

“You’ll probably get it in about a week, when everything is finalized; I’m having one sent to the lounge”

“What is being finalized?” Ji Hoo asked

“You’ll soon know, but you all have to promise me one thing; you won’t open it before I tell you guys”

“OK deal” Woo Bin said

“Ok, then I’ll talk to you all in a week. Bye” Mandy waved at them and the screen went blank.

“What do you think is happening?” Yi Jung asked

“I don’t know” Woo Bin said “and I can’t even ask my men about what is going on” he said in a frustrated way

“But you can ask your woman” Jun Pyo suggested “Ask Niya; she is your employee now, right?”

“That won’t help” Ji Hoo said

“Yeah it won’t” Jun Pyo said

“And it’s only a week or so more, and then we’ll know” Yi Jung said

“Yeah” Ji Hoo said and nodded

Hello Hello Moshi Moshi Ciao Ciao Busy Busy; everytime i try to update my network goes beep beep beep beep

Hahahahah Lol

just had to make this reference

anyone gets it?

No? Just me? *sigh*