Hiding the Truth

Cupid's Irony
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"Aerri!" The loud voice of a girl startled her, almost causing her to choke on the water she was drinking. Aerri turned her head to see the owner of the voice running from the other side of the cafeteria to her table.


"I miss you I miss you I miss youuuuuu...." Sara sat beside her and started hugging her arm, nuzzling her face on Aerri's shoulder.


"Why are you acting like you haven't seen me in a year? If this is how you treat your friend, then I wonder how you treat your boyfriend when you miss him." Aerri chuckled, grinning at Bae who took a seat in front of her.


"I haven't seen you for days! I scolded Dae the other day for giving you so much work. I swear, you're not at your room every time I came there to visit. And when I do meet you, you're always in a hurry to go somewhere else. It's either that or you're too tired from work. I miss my best friend." Sara whined cutely.


From the corner of her eyes, Aerri noticed Seunghyun who took a seat beside Bae. She glanced at Seunghyun, giving him a small smile when he smiled at her. It was the first time she saw him since she found out about her life and her relationship with Seunghyun when she was alive. The revelation only happened a few days before, but the way it haunted her made it feel like she had known about it since forever. She still hasn't decide if she should tell Seunghyun about the new information. But she decided to keep quiet about that matter for the time being.


So Aerri glanced back at the girl beside her who was doing her aegyo in full force. "Don't scold Dae. It's not his fault." Aerri chuckled. "Well, I'm here now. And I got no plan after this. So I'm all yours, if you're not busy."


"Yes! Give me 15 minutes to clean up. I just got back so i need to shower first." Sara jumped from her seat and stood up in excitement. "Bae baby, our dinner date is officially canceled! I'll meet you again tomorrow, ok." Sara said to Bae, who was gaping in surprise at his girlfriend's words. Then Sara point at Aerri and said, "You! Stay here and don't go anywhere. I'll be back soon." The girl then rush to cafeteria exit, seemingly afraid that her best friend might disappear again if she didn't hurry up.


"Did she just dump me for you?" Bae asked Aerri.


"Sisters before misters." Aerri laughed. "Sorry, Bae. I didn't know you two were going on a date. Or do you want to join us?"


"No, that's ok. She had been whining at me for the last couple of days because she missed you." Bae chuckled. "Well, since I'm dumped, I guess I better have dinner now, then. Be right back." Bae said as he stood up and head to some of the stalls to get some food.


Aerri watched Bae as he walked away from the table. Then she turned her glance to the other boy that was still with her on the table. Ever since he arrived on the table, Aerri could feel his stare on her. The stare wasn't a fierce or scary one. He was just.. observing her. She hated how that simple stare could elicit such powerful feelings in her whole body.


"You're not eating?" Aerri asked him, a desperate attempt to break the awkwardness she felt.


"No. Probably later." he said, still staring at her with a small smile on his lips.


Aerri just hummed as she continue eating her kimchi fried rice, silently wishing that he would stop staring at her that way. His presence always made her feel self conscious about herself. Even before she knew about her life and Seunghyun, those butterflies that erupted in her belly never failed to appear whenever she was with him. But it just got stronger now that she knew about her one sided love for the boy when she was alive.


The more she tried to restrain her feelings, the more it burst out of the seams of her heart, threatening to come out and expose themselves to him. And that was the last thing she wanted to happen. She didn't want him to ever know about how she felt for him, when she was alive and after she died. Why should he know? It probably would change things for the worse, especially when the situation at the moment was not that much different with when they were still alive. He likes someone else. When they were alive, he loves his girlfriend. And now, he likes, or probably loves Ai. Plain and simple. There was nothing she could do about it.


"How's the report?" he asked her.


"Hm?" she said, slightly startled when his question pulled her out of her busy thoughts. "Oh.. yes. The report's finally done. I gave it to Dae yesterday."


"So you've visited Jiyong again? Do I need to slap you back to sanity and out of your obsession?"


Aerri laughed and said, "Don't worry. No slapping is needed. I've visited him and my sanity's still intact. More or less." Had she decided to tell him about what she had found out, this would be the perfect time. But she was still not sure if she should do that. So she stayed silent.


"That's good. I like you better when you're sane." he gave her that shy smile, slightly tilting his head down like he always does whenever he smiles that way. That smile of him always pulled a smile to appear on her lips. But this time, Aerri knew the reason why she loves that smile so much. She had read the happy and sad moments she had with him when they were alive in her diary. And though she can't remember it, reading those moments was enough to make her understand why she loved him that much when she was alive, even after she died and got her memories erased. It kinda to think that he didn't remember her at all, even if only as a haunting familiarity. Just that fact made her think that her place in his heart was not as special as his place in her heart. And that made her bitter as hell.


Bae appeared with a tray of food, ready to enjoy his dinner. He took a seat in front of Aerri again, smiling bright at her. "You need to eat a lot, Aerri. Judging by the way Sara talked about wanting to have a girl's night out these last couple of days, your night with her won't end in an hour or two." Aerri chuckled at Bae's teasing, but she only nodded and not say a word as she kept busying her self with her food in front of her, even though the kimchi fried rice suddenly tasted bland. Aerri hated how the awkwardness she felt with Seunghyun ruined her mood.


"So, are you coming with us this weekend?" Bae asked her.


"Who is 'us' and where is 'us' going?" she asked him back.


"Sara haven't told you? All of us are accompanying Dae's shy to the winter mountain, just so that he won't be too alone with his crush."


"Oh yeah, Seunghyun told me about it. Dae's cute, but why the hell does he need his friends? I mean, I bet he's going to ditch us to be with his crush throughout the trip anyway."


"That's what I told him. But he kept asking us to come along. And Sara said it would be fun if we took a short trip together anyway. So, we're tagging along with Dae to the winter mountains. You're coming too, right?"


"Umh.. I don't think so. The weekend is 2 days from now. And I got work to do." Aerri said, trying hard not to stutter or looked nervous. If the awkwardness she felt with Seunghyun just now were a sign of how things would be, she preferred to avoid Seunghyun for a little while.


"Don't you remember who your supervisor is? Dae would totally give you a few days off to tag along with him." Bae chuckled.


"You're right." Aerri chuckled. She tried hard to think of another reason to not join them on the trip. But she couldn't think of anything. It was not like she could lie to them about a fake family gathering that she must attend or something. Besides, she didn't want to lie to her friends.


"I'm back!" Sara suddenly appeared beside her, gasping for air as she seemed to be running from her room to the cafeteria.


"I think I'm starting to get jealous of you, Aerri. I don't think Sara had ever been this excited to spend some time with me, and she usually never run for anything." Bae said, amused by his girlfriend's behavior.


Aerri just laughed as Sara stuck her tongue out at Bae. "Where are we going anyway?" Aerri asked Sara.


"How about just watch a movie? We can go to the theater at the town hall at the dorm."


"Ok then. Are you going to eat first?"


"Yup! Be right back." Sara said before heading to the stalls to get some food.


"How about you? Any plan for tonight? Care to accompany a lonely boy who just got dumped by his girlfriend for another girl?" Bae asked Seunghyun.


"Actually, I'm performing tonight." Seunghyun said.


"Really? Rapping? After all this time? That's awesome! I'm so there." Bae said in excitement.


"There where? Where are you going?" Sara suddenly appeared again with a small plate of dim sum.


"He's performing at the club again tonight." Bae grinned.


"Oh wow! That's great! Why didn't you tell us? At what time? Probably Aerri and I could join you after the movies."


"Around midnight, I guess. I'm kinda nervous about it, that's why I didn't tell you guys about it. I haven't done this in a while, so I think I'm a bit rusty." Seunghyun said, still with that shy smile on his face.


"I'll be there. Aerri's gonna be there too, right? You've never seen Seunghyun rap, have you? I myself have only seen him perform once, not long after I became a Cupid. He was awesome. I don't understand why he stopped performing, since he got tons of fan girls." Sara laughed as she continued to tell Aerri about Seunghyun's army of fan girls. But Aerri was too busy calculating the timeline in her mind that she didn't pay attention to Sara's words. She knew Sara became a Cupid since around a year and a half ago. And Ai was banished around 2 years ago. So Seunghyun stopped rapping not long after Ai was banished. Somehow Aerri wasn't surprised with this information.


"So, you're coming too tonight, Aerri?" Once again his soothing deep voice pulled her out of her thoughts. Sara and Bae was staring at her, waiting for her answer. But the hopeful look on Seunghyun's face caught her eyes. He seemed to be really hoping for some support from his friends. So how could she say no to him?


"Of course. I'll be there tonight." Aerri smiled.


"While we're on the topic of persuading Aerri to go to places, you might want to persuade her to come to the winter mountains too, Sara. She said she wasn't sure if she was going to join us." Bae said to Sara.


"What? Why not?!" Sara exclaimed in surprise.


Aerri swept her gaze to the people on her table once more. Bae was grinning cheekily, knowing that she usually couldn't say no to Sara. Sara was looking at her wide eyed, determined to get her to tag along with the rest of them that weekend. And Seunghyun.. he was still staring at her, observing her with that gorgeous eyes. Damn those eyes. She never could look at them bravely, as it seemed to be able to see through her, finding out about all her secrets, including secrets of how she felt for him.


"I just.. need time to rest? Catching up with some reading and stuff like that." She really wanted to sound convincing. But not only did she give a lame excuse, the tone of her words also betrayed her, as the quiver of it clearly showed that she made up that excuse weakly from thin air.


"It'll be fun, Aerri. You look like you could use some time other than at the dorm or at work." Sara said softly. Surprisingly, she didn't seem to be as pushy as she usually was.


Aerri took a deep breath, then said "Ok. I'll join you."


"Woohoo! I promise i won't ditch you or leave you alone, ok. No lovey dovey stuff with Bae from me." Sara said.


"Looks like I'm going to be dumped again this weekend." Bae said, sighing exaggeratedly, making Sara laugh as she kicked his feet softly under the table.


"Well, we better go now." Sara said, getting up from her seat. "See you tonight before Seunghyun's performance, ok boys?"


"See you later, guys." Aerri waved at the 2 boys. Bae was smiling brightly, but Seunghyun just mumbled a soft goodbye as he stared at the table in front of him. Somehow he looked sad. Why did he suddenly look sad? Aerri hated her curiosity and how the sad look on his face could simply make her drop everything to try to make him feel better. She wished she could care less about him. Why couldn't she care less about him? But then again, how the hell could she shed her feelings if she still felt it even after she died?

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The club was getting even more crowded. Ever

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momo8808
#1
Chapter 29: I was here again after so many years of waiting and I guess author-nim had abandoned this story. Sigh.
dawnsun #2
Chapter 29: It's been two years, almost three years since your last update of this story. I hope one day you're going to finish it. Stories with this kind of plot are hard to find.
drunkennightxo #3
updateeㅠㅠ
sapphire_kings
#4
Chapter 29: Please update this story soon
darkestnights #5
please update :(
momo8808
#6
I wondering if this story is still continuing or not..... Lol hello authornim *waving hands*
taekris #7
Chapter 29: It's been three months already. Hope you're doing fine and will be updating soon <3
dawnsun #8
Chapter 29: Pleas update this story. It's one of my favorite.
drunkennightxo #9
I hope they'll reborn and be together againn
kellykeyes #10
Chapter 29: You finally updated yay!!! Please make Seunghyun and Aerri stay together. I hope they can still get reborn.