Love Waltz

She didn’t show her face until the door bell rung. She took her time to dress into formal attire and use a little eyeliner. She looked pretty, overall. When she walked downstairs, she looked for the bodyguard. He wasn’t around, thankfully.

She was the one who opened the door and invited the guests in. She was the one who made sure they were having a good time and she was definitely the one who told everyone to hide in order to surprise Min Jun. Joon Myeon texted her when they were one block away from the house. Siwon didn’t appear.  When Min Jun entered the living room, he got surprised by his friends and started to jump around. He hugged his sister tightly and kissed her cheek before he went to play with his friends and eat.

“I bought enough presents for a year. My back hurts” Joon Myeon had to buy the presents. Some of the guests did come prepared but there were never enough presents for a kid. She smiled softly while watching her brother.

“He deserves everything” Her sincere smile was rare and contagious.

Joon Myeon found himself smiling lovingly like a stupid teenager. She was an important person for him. She was very oblivious towards his feelings but he didn’t care. As long as he was able to stay beside her and help her, he was thankful.

“Did you see Siwon? I haven’t seen him in a few hours” Joon Myeon raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

Truthfully, Siwon was already at the hospital when Joon Myeon arrived. He was talking about something with Min Jun. If he didn’t know better, he could have sworn Siwon was Min Jun’s father. But unfortunately, he wasn’t. He told Joon Myeon to take Min Jun home because he had some urgent business to attend to. Joon Myeon learned that he shouldn’t ask what an urgent business meant so he didn’t ask.     

The party went smoothly. The kids played and ate a lot. They sung the birthday song to the birthday boy and they gave him the presents. They played and even did karaoke until around 8 o’clock, when their parents came to take them home. Mi Rae was in the kitchen with Joon Myeon, trying to clean up what they could.

“I’m going to call someone to clean this up. Even if they are little, they make a lot of mess” Joon Myeon walked out to call for the cleaners, leaving Mi Rae all alone. She sighed and leaned against the counter.

The whole day went by perfectly. Min Jun was happy and that was all that mattered. Her father didn’t show up but that was to be expected. After Min Jun went to his room and Joon Myeon went home, she was finally free. She took a long shower and changed into comfortable clothes. She was ready to turn on her computer and read about Shakespeare when a knock on the door interrupted her.

“Are you busy?” The door to her room was wide open. He knocked just in case she was asleep or busy. Or maybe he just wanted her attention. It didn’t matter, anyway.

“Where have you been the whole day? Shouldn’t you be guarding us?” He rubbed the back of his head and sighed.

She didn’t say anything else. Seeing as she didn’t tell him to leave, he entered her room. He walked towards the bed and placed a box on it. Her eyes went to the small jewelry box and raised an eyebrow.

“What is that?”

“Your present” Her head shot up to look at him. She tried not to show how taken aback she was but her face wasn’t helping her at all. “I found out why you wanted to make a party for Min Jun. It was his birthday. But I found out something else too. He told me he was born on the same day as his sister. You tell everyone your birthday is in December when your birthday is actually today”

She was surprised, yes. She wasn’t expecting such an affectionate man to be her bodyguard. She fidgeted and stared indecisively at the box. He pushed it closer to her. She opened it, eventually. She was stunned by the small gift. It was a silver necklace with a complex pendant. It had a ruby in the middle while there were swirls of silver circling it.

“Wow” That was everything she could say.

No one knew about her real birthday, yet he somehow found out.

“Thank you” She smiled happily and tried to tie it around her neck a few times until Siwon helped her.

 It was special. Their eyes met for a brief second and they smiled at each other. In that particular second, his eyes were shining and he looked nothing like a dangerous man. He was the epitome of a perfect man; at least in her vision. He caressed her cheek softly before he left. She remained in her room, a little dumbstruck but happy nonetheless.   

The next day was a school day. They had to wake up early. Min Jun was trying to make a deal with Siwon so that he could stay at home for the day. Unfortunately, it didn’t work at all.

“Did he try to bribe you?” After Min Jun entered the school yard, she chose to stay behind for the rest of the time. There were 5 more minutes until the bell had to ring.  Siwon chuckled.

“He did. He tried to give me special information in exchange” Mi Rae didn’t want to know what that special information consisted of. For an 11 years old kid, Min Jun knew how to deal with older boys. Most of the time, he was successful. Mi Rae and their father were the only people he couldn’t influence however he wanted to.

While Mi Rae was busy talking, Siwon noticed someone watching them. It was a young man, far younger than he was. Siwon recognized him as the potentially dangerous English teacher. His eyes were glued to Mi Rae and it caused the bodyguard uneasiness.

Once Siwon left, Mi Rae entered the classroom. She was bombarded with questions. She took a step back, shocked. Joon Myeon entered right after her and helped her move through the crowd of teenage girls. Even after she sat at her desk, the girls made a crowd around her.

“Who was that guy you were talking to?” Yuri went straight to the subject. The girls nodded their heads at the same time and leaned closer to their victim.

“He’s my new driver” That was a white lie. But, amongst other jobs, Siwon was their driver.

“Do you know his name?” Suzy wasn’t as excited as the other girls, but she was curious.

“Siwon” The girls started to giggle and whisper between them. Mi Rae rolled her eyes and put her head on the desk. “He’s not that interesting” She mumbled. No one listened to her. They were too engrossed in their own fantasies.

The room got quieter when the English teacher entered. The girls forgot about Siwon for a while and got distracted by teacher Jung speaking in English with a British accent. That was impressive, though. Even Mi Rae listened closely to him.

“One of the most beautiful and tragic stories is Romeo and Juliet. It is a famous play by none other than William Shakespeare. There are many remakes over this certain love story. Do you know why?” His eyes traveled over every head in the class. Yuri raised her hand. She was the only one.

“Because they ended up dying” Mi Rae chuckled under her hand. That was such an innocent answer. Teacher Wu’s eyes went to his favorite student.

“Is there something funny, Mi Rae?” She shook her head and tried not to look like a deer caught in the highlight. “Why don’t you tell us what is this story about” She had to summarize the summary. She didn’t read the play but she did read some comment about it on the internet.

“Their families were against their relationship so they couldn’t be together. Juliet had to marry someone else so she decided to fake her own death. Romeo thought she was truly dead so he drunk poison. When Juliet woke up, she realized that Romeo killed himself for her and she stabbed herself with his dagger” Wu nodded while pacing in front of the class.

“Indeed. Why do you think she turned to that act?” Mi Rae thought he was talking to the entire class but his eyes were staring at her.

“Because their love was forbidden. They were willing to die for each other and they did” She didn’t know what more she could say. She had enough tragedy in her life. She didn’t need to read about tragedies to recognize how far was from reality.

Thankfully, the teacher went on with his lecture and didn’t ask her anything else. After his class was over, Yuri walked to him and asked him for more details regarding Romeo and Juliet. Mi Rae chuckled and tried to sneak out. The teacher saw her from miles away.

“Mi Rae! Wait up. I have something to talk to you” After he called her, he gave Ye Rim a book and excused himself. Yuri glared at the back of his head and walked out. Mi Rae was all alone with her teacher. Somehow, that didn’t seem safe.

“Is there something wrong?” Her monotone voice showed how bored she was. She held no interest for her teacher. At least, not as much as her teacher.

“What happened two nights ago? You ran to the hospital. Is everything alright?” Mi Rae gave a reassuring smile and grabbed her books.

“You don’t have to worry. It was nothing urgent. If that’s all, I will leave now” She didn’t wait for him to respond. She opened the door and walked out. When she turned the corner, she saw Yuri staring at her curiously.

The whole day processed quite nicely. Lunch came faster than in any other day.

“Mi Rae, do you like Teacher Wu?” She almost spilled everything she had in .

“No! What the-No!” In her perspective, that was true. She already liked someone else. On the other side, the girls thought she responded too fast. “I know you like him, Yuri. I wouldn’t do anything else”

“So if I wouldn’t like him, you would try your chances?” Mi Rae felt like slapping herself.

“No! I told you I don’t like him. Give me a break” Yuri glared at her friend and sat up.

“Fine. I will give you a break” She huffed and walked away. Mi Rae stared stupidly at the empty space between Suzy and another friend.    

For the rest of the day, Mi Rae tried to ignore Yuri’s attitude. She was annoyed and she couldn’t wait to go home. When she saw Siwon’s car, she couldn’t help but smile halfheartedly.

“You look tense” Min Jun was already home. He was still young and couldn’t concentrate for more than 6 hours. Mi Rae spent her whole day at school. After Yuri started to act like a , her whole happy mood died.

“I’m really tired. Let’s just get home” Siwon glanced at her through the review mirror. Her face was blank. He couldn’t find any hint to what she was truly feeling.

“If you ever get in trouble, I hope you know you can tell me” She rolled her eyes and hid the growing smile behind her bangs. He was making her feel a lot of mixed feelings.

At home, she walked straight into her room. She didn’t go down for dinner or when her father arrived home. President Kang had to leave the next day for Busan so he didn’t give much thought to his daughter. He was busy preparing for his business trip. Min Jun was too busy playing video games to think about his sister. Sometimes, he was acting his age. 

“Are you alright?” He didn’t bother to knock on the door. It was barely 9 o’clock. She wasn’t going to sleep so early and she was definitely not busy. She already finished her homework.

She glanced uninterestingly towards the door and turned her attention back on her laptop. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned against the door frame.

“Are you going to tell me what happened at school?” She dropped the earphones and sighed.

“It’s not a big problem. It’s just a girl problem” Siwon raised one eyebrow and smirked. He had a vague idea of what girls her age were talking about. She blushed when she realized how her explanation sounded. “Not something erted but it is about a guy”

He chuckled and entered her room. He sat on the edge of her bed, like before, and stared at her expectantly. She rubbed her arms together and fell on her back.

“My friend likes a guy. But that guy likes me, I think. She got mad and started to act y” Siwon’s response didn’t come quickly at all.

“Is that all?” His voice betrayed him. He found the whole problem childish and stupid. It wasn’t even a serious problem. She sat back up and glared at him.

“Yes. I told you it’s nothing life threatening” He leaned on one hand and crossed one leg over the other. He looked really good like that; it gave him a special charm. Those thoughts invaded Mi Rae’s mind.

“Ok. If it gets too bad, call me” She nodded and watched as her bodyguard left her room. Once she glanced at the place he sat on, she saw a pack of snacks. She chuckled. He left the pack there intentionally. He knew she hadn’t eaten dinner that night.