Chapter 8

“Chanyeol, Tim Hwang. Tim, Park Chanyeol.” Yunho smiled as he made the introduction. Then he chuckled as he saw Chanyeol’s eyes flared widely when he saw Tim, “Don’t mistake him for a girl if you don’t want to get hurt. I can attest that his karate is superb.” Yunho said, chuckling merrily but his chuckle died down abruptly when he noticed that he was the only one laughing. Looking at both of his friends, a frown started to mar his forehead as he noticed how much Chanyeol was mesmerized with Tim & vice versa. He immediately stepped between them & cleared his throat loudly to snap them out from their staring contests but Tim & Chanyeol still stood there motionless, eyes still on each other, not even acknowledging his signal. The crease between his eyebrows got deeper & he could see the deep green color of jealousy starting to edge his vision. Tersely, he ordered Yoona to show Chanyeol to his room. As soon as the delighted Yoona dragged Chanyeol away with the fire of jealousy burned hotly in his bloodstream, he elbowed Tim out of his stupor.

Tim blinked his eyes a couple of times & then asked hoarsely, “Who is that guy?”

“None of your business.” Yunho replied sulkily. He squinted his eyes & looked at Tim sharply, “Don’t tell me that you are interested in him. I won’t tell you about him.” But when Tim turned those fascinating eyes on him, he sighed & plopped onto the couch, “Chanyeol is my worst enemy turned best friend in busan international high school. He is the one who had managed to influence & change me from the totally spoiled kid I was into the man I’m today. He is also the one who taught me the meaning & value of responsibility & friendship. All my positive sides that I have today are because of him.” Giving Tim a warning look, he added grumpily, “You had better stay away from him & don’t even think about hooking up with him. He’s taken.” Tim only blinked his eyes once before walking away, still in a trance.

Yunho scowled as he watched his hypnotized-like friend walked through the doorway & out from his sight. Snarling, he punched the couch cushion to vent his apprehension & frustration. Damn it all! He was so happy when he had seen Chanyeol waiting for him in his office this afternoon. It’s been so long since he last saw him after all. He had been so happy that he didn’t even think about the possibility of Tim’s attraction to him when he had insisted Chanyeol to stay in his house. If he knew Tim would react this way, he would have drive Chanyeol away from Seoul as soon as he could & banned him from here until he got Tim safely by his side. Sulking, he threw his head back & stared up at the ceiling broodingly. He was the one who had decided to play along with this charade & he couldn’t afford to give it up for nothing. Especially not now, not when Chanyeol would be a considerable threat to him. He had planned to share the joke with him, telling Chanyeol all about this guy named Tim & his mischievous, yet cute side but with the recent can’t take my eyes off of you incident, it would be a foolish & suicidal step instead. If Chanyeol knew...no, this would be one secret he had to keep for himself.

He puffed out his breath as he massaged his suddenly pounding temple. His mind went back to that point, a month ago when he had taken Tim skydiving.

*Flashback*

“Tim, you okay?” He asked, as he saw Tim still sprawled there, hugging the ground, five minutes after her landing & what a landing it was. Instead of running the moment he touched the ground to lose the impact of the dive, he had immediately fallen onto the ground & laid there ever since. He wondered if the impact of the dive had knocked him out. Crouching down beside him, he hauled his parachute aside & nudged him, “Hey, Tim. You are not dead from a heart attack, are you? Wasn’t it a lot of fun? Oh, you can’t speak yet, can you? With the way you were screaming your lungs out from the moment you were out of that plane, your throat must be dry. You know, you screamed like a girl. So high pitched & the way your arms & legs flailed about, totally girly. You should practice screaming until you get a somewhat manly scream like mine. Not that I would ever scream like you did.” Chuckling & shaking his head, he nudged Tim again, “Hey, how come you aren’t saying anything? Did you swallow a bug when your mouth was wide opened up there & now it’s still lodged in your throat?” He peeked to see his eyes & chuckled as two fiery orbs were shooting daggers at him. Grinning, he shook Tim again, “Come on now. How much longer do you want to lie there? It’s not that bad anyway & if you just would admit it, you would see that it was the greatest fun you have ever had in your short little life.”

The answer he got was only a groan, followed by a threat to cut his limbs off if he didn’t stop nagging. He grinned unrepentantly & started to prod Tim even more, irritating the poor guy enough that he started to move his limbs to get up & the sight of those knees knocking together when he struggled to stand upright prompted Yunho into another burst of laughter. He tried to swallow his laughter when he noticed the warning look Tim sent his way but when his whole body started to shake & his stomach started to cramp, Yunho gave up & almost rolled on the ground with laughter, “Sorry.” He said, amidst his laughter, “But you may want to practice your knees. You could make music with them.”

Before he could start laughing again, & realized Tim’s intention, he already went flying when Tim had growled & tackled him down. His breath was knocked out of him as he took the brunt of the fall with Tim on top of him, smiling smugly but the smug smile didn’t affect him that much. It was the feeling of some definite softness on his chest that had caused the astonished & horror-struck expression on his face. The softness that no male species was supposed to have. He was so shell-shocked that he didn’t even put up a fight when he was dragged to his car. He didn’t even object when Tim started to shoot his endless grievances at him as he was too busy with his idiotic expression the whole ride home!

Once he was in the confine of his room that it hit him hard. Roaring indignantly, he started to tear towards the door to confront her about it, to chew her out for deceiving him because he certainly wasn’t dreaming for he could still feel those softness of hers when she was pressed up against him. Whatever she had done to her s all these times, the skydiving & flailing her arms must have released them a little bit & the fact that some mere senseless girl had managed to fool him, the ever so powerful & brilliant Jung Yunho, to think that she was a he for the last two months was so humiliating. He remembered those times when he had pulled pranks on Tim & his face was immediately suffused in color. He was mighty relieved that he had never ordered her to wash his back or to join him in his tub & he certainly thanked god that he had never punched her in the chest as he had usually done to his other male friends.

His hand was already on the doorknob when this damn idea started to form in his head! An idea so far-fetched that it was perfect. His arms fell to his side right away as a wicked smile started to light up his face.

If he could be honest to himself, he actually felt a little bit of amusement & admiration towards the girl. Not many people could pull that off, after all & not many people would have the guts to do that. He grinned gleefully as his mind formed the scene where Tim meekly admitted the truth to him. He would pretend to be shocked, horrified & then indignantly angry, of course. Then he would do what he’s supposed to do in the first place. The image of him spanking that incorrigible girl flashed in front of his eyes, making him feel a whole lot better but the first step to his plan was to make sure that Tim was indeed a girl, although he was eighty percent sure of it so in the week that followed, he had tested & observed her as subtle as he could. As time went by, he had been more & more sure of his assumption but the crowning touch had been when he had taunted her about going to a strip club hopping.

“Come on, Tim. It’s going to be fun & it would add to your limited male experience.” Yunho grinned innocently when those horror-struck eyes turned to him. Oh yeah, Tim’s a girl alright. No guy would have that shocked expression on his face whenever the image of a strip club popped into his mind. He might not be interested & he might not be in the mood to go but no man alive would get that indignant & appalled expression on his face, “& it was a shame that a guy your age has never seen those god’s greatest creations. Come on, let’s go. I will show you what to do there so you wouldn’t look like a fool.” He further. It’s not that he liked going to strip clubs. Sure, there were all kinds of women there but he preferred his women to be his & his only for the short time they are together. It was just that he’s curious to see her reaction.

Those impossibly wide eyes got even wider which made his heart started beating rapidly as it always did whenever he looked at them, “You.” She sputtered. Then as she flounced indignantly from the room, she shouted, “You are unbelievable! A degrader of women, an immoral lecher! You...You are...You are one sick, sick ert!” Even as the door was slammed shut behind her, Yunho laughed uproariously in triumph. He finally got his answer now.

*End of Flashback*

Smiling softly, he shook his head & cursed himself again, for the stupid & dense guy that he had been! How could he not notice the subtle feminine scent that had been innately hers? How could he not notice the gestures so obviously female when Tim was cuddling her babies? How could he not notice the way his heart stumbled whenever she had turned those eyes & smile at him? In his denseness, he had always thought he was getting old & his heart had started to fail him. He had even planned to start doing some routine check up when all this time, his heart had been trying to tell him the truth.

He shivered as he recalled that scene a week ago. His heart had skidded to a stop when he had heard her shouting for help. The image of her drowning, of her being lost in the sea, out of his life, of her being scared enough to forget her disguises & let out that feminine screech, had prompted him into saving her without thinking about the danger he would put himself in. He had been lucky that all the vicious fish had been on vacation at that time. Otherwise...he shivered again, but at that time, when he had been on his way down to meet that blue water, he didn’t even think about sharks or drowning. He had been so busy thinking about how grateful he was that he had got there in time to save her & when she had yelled at him for being stupid enough to save her, when he had seen the glisten of worry & relief in her eyes, he had finally accepted the truth! Somehow, someway, love had sneaked in. Somehow, someway, this stubborn, yet compassionate girl had been the only girl who had ever managed to claim his heart.

He didn’t care that his friends were now looking at him weirdly. He didn’t care that they squirmed uneasily & got this worried expression on their faces whenever he got too close. Even when they had whispered about taking him to a psychiatrist, he couldn’t care less. He wondered if Chanyeol being here would be one of their resorts to turn him back to his normal self. Scoffing, he looked at his hands & a tender smile twitched his lips. One thing for sure, he would never regret nor forget that moment when he had held her close. The moment when her body had fitted so perfectly against his.

With a smile on his lips, he got up & walked towards the stairs, his mouth was already opened to yell for Tim to come & cook him something to eat. During the last two months, her cooking skill had become so good that he could barely believe it that she had made the best raspberry & rose layer cake he had ever tasted by herself. Cheerfully, he took in a deep breath to yell out her name & almost swallowed his tongue in shock when he heard her laughter & Chanyeol’s voice drifting from the kitchen. As fast, yet silent as he could, he headed towards the source of the sound & was tempted to slam his head or better yet, Chanyeol’s head into the wall when he saw how Chanyeol finally succeeded in charming Tim into making him some sweets & felt his heart squeezed when he saw Tim began to make her famous lemon cheesecake bar.

‘What would I do if she really falls in love with Chanyeol?’ He wondered wistfully, as he leaned his head bleakly against the wall. Would he be able to ever let her go?