Since the holiday started it was difficult to not cross path with Barom since we were living under one roof. Most of the time, we would pretend that the other party didn’t exist and proceeded on to do our own stuff. The only time we were ‘nice’ to each other was during family meals. Because not many knew about the marriage, I was being on an absolute low profile for my sake and Rome’s. A lot of people knew I disliked Rome and how I was not Rome’s taste so saving myself from this humiliation was the best thing I could do. I didn’t go out as much as Rome did to avoid suspicion. We always avoided family outings together with Mr and Mrs Yu, coming up with stupid excuses which, fortunately, Mrs Yu understood and tried to reason out with her husband.

 

I was in the room on the bed, reading the novel that was a gift from my girls while Rome was lazying around on the sofa, blasting to his hiphop music when Madam Oki came knocking at the door.

 

“Barome, Kangjun called earlier. Said he and friends coming over in half an hours’ time. Your promise bring them to playroom for dancing, remember?” she reminded Barom.

 

Both our eyes widened and we quickly got up on our feet.

 

“You didn’t tell me!” I hissed.

“I totally forgot. Do you think I would wanna let them see you in this house?!” he kept his voice low in case Madam Oki heard him.

 

“Um, okay Madam Oki. Thanks for reminding” he shouted over before glancing back at you.

“You need to..”

“Don’t tell me what to do. I am going out in 10 minutes’ time.”

 

How could he even forgot his own appointment that could jeopardise the whole thing that we have been hiding for months! Before he could say anything else, I hastily applied some powder on the face and grabbed the tote ontop of the cupboard and ran out of the house. Luckily Mr and Mrs Yu were on business trips – it could not have been better! I have told Madam Oki earlier about our secret and she agreed to play her part. I owed her big time.

 

>> 

The boys came over and went straight into the playroom while waiting for Rome. It has been months since they came over. The playroom used to be their favourite hangout place till Rome decided a few months back to cut down on visiting his abode because his father was making too much fuss about them dancing late to the night. The whole group danced well and they called themselves CClown. Forever getting first place in interschool competitions, surprisingly making the school proud of something they single handedly achieved by themselves – other than being school goons.

 

“This place haven’t change”, TK’s eyes scanned the vast area.

“Yeah, except for the carpet” Maru chided lamely. All eyes set on him, on the verge of eating him up alive. “What? I didn’t say anything wrong, did I?”

“Ay, whassup.” Barom came in, fist locking with the group. “Got the songs for practice right here”, he waved his thumbdrive over to the kids and walked over to the laptop.

“Did you put in the song I sent over last night?” Ray glanced over at the leader. Rome signaled a thumbs up and got on with blasting the songs.

 

It had been so long since CClown’s last practice but the movements were as sharp as ever. Kangjun was not talking too much but he put all his energy into the dance that required almost 70% of their body energy. He was the closest to Rome in the group but personally, he wanted to be as good as Rome. After 2 hours of non stop practice, everyone was lying on the ground in exhaustion, Taemin lunged himself onto the sofa whereas Kangjun just rested his over the study table. He stretched out his hand backwards to support himself to realize that there were certain school books over the other side.

 

Ah since when is Rome so hardworking. He never studies much.

 

Kangjun began stacking up the books neatly – he was a neat freak. As he picked the books up one by one, he made sure that the cover pages were not folded into half. He knew well how Rome treated his school books. The last 2 books he picked up was unusually wrapped with a plastic cover neatly. He knew it was not Rome’s. Discreetly he flipped the books open.

 

Sara Lee

Jung Wook High School

 

He furrowed his eyebrows. Sara’s? He knew that Sara was Rome’s prey earlier on but he made her attend only one of his classes. Not two. Kangjun inspected the books again. No doubt they were Sara’s. Even if Sara was made to come and teach Rome, she would have brought back her books because last week was the final exams before summer holidays. They were the major modules. She would have failed them if she did not revise because the books contained tons of hints and answers. But… he recalled Sara’s position in the cohort to fall among the better ones.

Is Rome hiding something from us? What is going on between him and Sara?

 

“Jun”, Rome startled the toned body guy from behind. Kangjun slowly stacked the books along with Rome’s. “Its okay you don’t need to stack those books. I don’t see the need to.” Rome passed him a face towel. Kangjun was trying to think of ways to ask Rome regarding the books but in the end, decided that he would ask when they were alone.

 

“How long will your parents be away for the business trip?” Kangjun tried to sound normal so the others would not suspect anything.

 

“Probably about 4 to 5 days? They are having the annual regional business trip. They might extend the number of days. Maybe I can call you guys over again. Its hard to dance with dad clutching hard on my throat.” No one knew at the same time as Rome said that, he was making sure that he did not spill out any secret regarding his relationship with Sara. He let out a small laugh like he always did watching human domino forming with Ray at the bottom, Maru, Taemin and TK. Apparently Kangjun looked as if he had mood swings so Rome did not talk much to him.

 

The knock on the door startled the younger boys, who were partially traumatised by Mr Yu’s excessive knockings on the door while they were practicing a few months back.

 

“Boys, lunching is ready. Come out soon!” Madam Oki’s thick Filipino accent filled the room that was suddenly too quiet. Upon hearing the word ‘food’, all the younger ones stood up and their faces beaming with glee. With Barom’s nod, everyone literally ran out of the room leaving Kangjun and Barom behind.

 

This is the chance, Kangjun thought. As Barom got up to exit the room, Kangjun’s hand grabbed his arm lightly. Barom turned to look at his best mate whom he felt guilty to, keeping his marriage a secret. “Yeah what?”

 

“Nah nothing, I was just thinking if…Sara came here or something?” Barom’s facial expression froze.

“What… do you mean?”

“Well, I saw her books over at the study table earlier. She must’ve good brains to study without her books while you and I struggle to get a passing mark for the paper.” Kangjun was trying hard to not sound that sarcastic as he walked past Barom and patted his back to join the rest. Barom knew Kangjun well. He probably suspected something. If he wanted, he could have just told the members about the marriage he hated. But no matter how he was, he was the man of his words. He had promised Sara to keep everything a secret for their sake.

 

He shrugged as he dragged himself to the dining table. He needed to come up with something. “You know she was my prey of the month. So I made her come over every day to play pretend that I was studying as hard. She knew she left her books here but you know how much she hated me and how I abhor her so she didn’t come over to retrieve them. Too bad I ain’t got time to bring her books to her.”

 

Luckily the others were not paying attention to the conversation and were happily slurping Madam Oki’s signature jjampong. “Ah, really.” Kangjun picked up his chopsticks. “I thought you guys were dating or something.”

 

Barom choked on his drink when Kangjun said that. “Yah you punk, why would I date SUCH a girl? Stupid. She is not even my type.”