NOW

APRIL 2017

“Okay, so,” Naeun’s head turned slightly to let her hair fall behind her shoulder so they won’t get in her way of cooking. “I’ve got this homemade kimchi my mom just sent me. I like to eat it as it is, but do you want to cook it in any particular way?”

Jongin has been sitting across the counter, watching every move Naeun made, looking at her beautiful blonde hair that kept swaying back and forth untied. He gasped, and quickly stifled a smile. Naeun is so consolable.

“Can you make stew?”

“Kimchi stew?”

“Yep,” Jongin nodded, and proceeded to get up to offer some help.

“Okay,” Naeun smiled back and walked towards the cabinet drawer to pull out a knife.

“What can I do to help?”

“You can help washing the rice and cook’em.”

“Alright.”

Naeun was silent while doing her cutting over the sink. Jongin then came slipping in to wash the rice and he couldn’t help but notice how disturbed she looked with her hair falling past her shoulder. He turned forward and grinned in secrecy. Seconds after he was done with rice, he remained besides Naeun and drew a hand behind’s Naeun’s head and grab a fistful of Naeun’s lock into his own, startling Naeun and almost sent her heart out of her chest.

She flinched, and frowned as she turned her head awkwardly at indifferent Jongin.

“What – why are you grabbing my hair?”

“It gets in your way of cooking.”

“And you have to grab it like that? You look like an immature serial killer.”

Jongin tilled his head in confusion. He was looking at his own hand holding Naeun’s hair up so they won’t fall back past her shoulder anymore but he received in return was a mockery. Cool.

“Is this not romantic?” He asked, raising a brow innocently. “I thought you’d be moved by small yet thoughtful gesture?”

Naeun’s face flushed, her eyes blinked slowly as she looked at him and no words could escape from her lips. She paused, and burst into laughter out of sudden.

“I don’t know,” Naeun shook her head, eyes began filled up with tears. “Why – how is this romantic? Please, enlighten me.”

“I – I don’t want you to – this hair, is long and it gets in your way. I told you that.”

“And you grab it? With your fist? Your hand hanging midair behind my head like that and this is your idea of romantic?”

Jongin grunted, his face rosy red from her tease and let go of her hair immediately while Naeun was still trying to level her laughter.

“What’s so funny?” Jongin crossed his arms, clearly annoyed.

“Can you please grab my hair tie inside my bag? Side pocket,” Naeun turned to Jongin with a comforting smile hoping to fix his mood. “Please. It’s on the couch by the TV.”

Jongin did not say anything to her back but he still did as he was told. He went into the living room and grabbed the mentioned hair tie. Jongin came back and saw Naeun was washing up her hands. Jongin came up to her and showed her the hair tie.

“Thank you,” she turned to face him and took the hair tie that was given to her, and began working up her hair into a ponytail.

“I won’t be as kind now to you, that’s for sure.” Jongin murmured, as he made his way over to the stove.

“Thank you for thinking of my hair,” Naeun made a face. “If that makes any sense. I didn’t mean to laugh at your effort though.”

“Too late for that.”

                THEIR meal that day was fairly substantial with kimchi stew, rolled egg, fried tuna fish, smoked salmon (instant one), tofu soup and steamed carrot and asparagus on the table. Jongin was genuinely surprised by the hidden ability Naeun has in cooking. Perfect housewife material, he thought.

                “Dig in,” Naeun said as they both sat down before their food. “Thank you for the groceries.”

                “Thank you for making full use of it,” Jongin said kindly. “Can’t believe you – cook,” Jongin put it out awkwardly, but almost in the nicest way possible.

                “Yeah. There’s nothing I can’t do, huh?” Naeun asked in a cynical smirk, brows jumping up and down in a manner to more.

                Jongin, looking indifferent, glanced away and onto the soup that let off white steam in front of him. He took a spoon and raked a small portion and brought the soup near his lips. He blew a bit and finally took it in. Naeun, propping her chin in her hands, never looked this nervous while waiting for an answer.

                “Is it good?” She asked in a high, excited voice.

                Jongin maintained a stone expression, and he didn’t utter a word but only give a tiny nod to his head. His lips closed a tight line, his jaw tensed.

                “Yah, Kim Jongin, say something?”

                “It’s-” Frowns furrowed upon Jongin’s brow. “Tremendously great,” he ended in a dry chuckle, timidly pushing back the soup.

                “Is it bad?”

                “It can – not get any better-,” he muttered, almost stumbling upon his original sentence of ‘it can get worse’. “Than this.”

                Naeun clicked her tongue, angry, and took a sip at her soup impatiently. She paused, waiting for the taste to totally be imprinted onto her tongue good before dropping her shoulder in disappointment. Naeun put down her spoon with a clutter and pushed back her chair to get rid of the soup.

                Jongin, guilt-tripped, lurched forward and claimed Naeun’s hand to stop her from doing what he thought she might do.

                “Where are you going?”

                “To throw this soup away before it messes with our taste bud.”

                “It’s not that bad,” Jongin said soothingly, squeezing Naeun’s hand with much tenderness. “Let’s sit down, please.”

                “But it’s – I don’t even know what word to describe it.” She sank into her seat and Jongin let go of her hand.

                “Naeun,” Jongin called out again. His tone was firm but his face was gentle and kind. “It’s not a big deal.”

Naeun sighed outwardly, and gazed sadly at the failed menus on the table. “What about the egg? And the salmon? And the stew – oh my god kimchi stew has got to be easiest thing to do and I cannot possibly screw that one up too.”

                Jongin grabbed his spoon and took a sip at the stew. He then moved on to other dishes silently, and continued to do so until he finished tasting it all. He seemed collected, and with a cool shrug, he said, “They all taste wonderful, so let’s just eat, okay? I’m starving.”

                “You’re lying,” Naeun squinted her eyes, hard-headed, and took one round of tasting the dishes. She paused after tasting the stew, and her sigh grew lower and disgruntled. Naeun massaged her temple, her head dizzy.

                “The stew needs to go,” Naeun spat furiously and once again, pushed her chair back to get off her seat. Jongin naturally drew his hand forward and held onto Naeun to stop her from leaving the table, again.

                “It’s fine, Naeun. No dish has to go. Can we please, just eat?” He let out a small chuckle, thawing the intensity in Naeun’s mood swings.

                “But it’s - it’s not good. It’s bland, but it’s spicy and tangy and – overall it’s just weird. I cannot let you eat that. You’re gonna end up in a hospital.”

                “So I’ll end up in a hospital, big deal. Naeun, you have spent time and effort into making this lunch to work, and you haven’t had anything solid for today, so please, for the love of God, let’s not put it all to waste, okay? I’ve had food weirder and way worse than this, so, basically this is nothing. This is normal.”

                “I am mortified.”

                “Don’t be. I told you, it’s not a big deal.”

                “I thought I had it all under control. What went wrong?” Naeun spat out with utter fury, staring down each dish with fire burning in her eyes.

                “Can we eat now, please?”

                Naeun pouted, still feeling horribly down by her failure and nodded feebly as she picked up her chopsticks. She didn’t know which dish to try first because they all tasted like a miserable break-up story.

                “I will make better food for you in the future, Jongin. You can expect that.”

                Jongin did not say anything when he lifted his chin, and only smiled when he noticed how lifeless Naeun appeared before her meal.

                “Don’t pick at your food, Naeun,” Jongin reminded gently, and Naeun straight away fed some rice and egg into .

                “At least the egg is fine,” Naeun threw out half-heartedly.

                “Praise the Lord,” Jongin chuckled in a playful smile as he looked at her in a glance.

                The joke however did not reach Naeun as how Jongin had foreseen it. In fact, her expression grew darker and this time, when she got up from the seat, Jongin missed by an inch to grab her hand down. She hurriedly stormed into the kitchen. Jongin could tell right away something has ticked off inside his boss’s head.

                “Where are you going?” Jongin asked, worried, upon seeing her back disappeared into the kitchen.

                “I’m getting a knife.”

                “To – to cut the salmon?” Anxiety began cooking up inside Jongin as his mind began wandering into places he shouldn’t have gone into.

                “No, silly.” Silent. And then, out of nowhere, Jongin heard a knife being sharpened. “You.”

                “Holy -” Jongin got off his seat and went into the kitchen as well. A battle of life and death is about to break down in the kitchen and he was not about to go down without a fight, or a plea of apology.

MINHYUK knew Lana liked Christmas music a lot, and despite being in mid April, he didn’t mind hitting up the old records of Lake Greg and The Ramones if that was what Lana asked for.

“It’s getting late,” Minhyuk smiled a secret smile, and ran his fingers along her thigh as he put down the wine glass.

“I like nights like these,” Lana commented with genuine happiness on her face. “I like Christmas music.”

“I know you do,” Minhyuk said whisperingly and leaned close on her. Lana turned her face to meet his gaze, a cynical seductive look Minhyuk always put on every time he wanted to cut short her fun nights. And she never appreciated it.

“Don’t give me that look,” Lana turned away, displeased.

“It’s almost 12 AM. You need to get some rest. Jinki told you to not get into bed late, right?”

“I know, but it’s not like I have been doing anything physical or anything at all in fact, in the morning. I’m not exhausted. I feel fine, Minhyuk.”

“You’re not gonna feel fine if you keep getting into bed late, Lana. C’mon now, honey, don’t be angry.”

“I’m not angry,” Lana’s voice fell, and she dropped her head in her hands as she shifted her gaze back at Minhyuk. “I just wish – I mean, Minhyuk, I am getting better, aren’t I? I want you to treat me like I’m not sick anymore.”

Minhyuk sat perfectly still as he looked on at the love of his life, letting silence stretched between them. Lana looked awfully fragile in her slouching shoulder and Minhyuk noticed the dim light in her eyes that has appeared even more frequent now than before. It only life wasn’t this cruel to her.

 “That’s not true,” Minhyuk’s voice was small but defensive. “I know you’re getting better. But, it’s not a bad idea if you let your body to have some rest, now is it? Lana, you need to trust me, okay? ”

Lana did not say anything further; and only nodded in a short, plain smile as she offered him her hand.

“Minhyuk, I wanna go somewhere tomorrow. And I want you to come along. Do you have free time tomorrow?”

“I’d always have time for you,” Minhyuk took her hand in his own and planted a warm kiss on top of her hand, a small gesture of many others of how she meant so much to him. “But do you know where we are going specifically?”

“To Naeun.”

                EVERY time Lana brought up the topic about Naeun, Minhyuk knew right away where she wanted to go from there. She has always gone on about how sorry she felt for Naeun after what she did to her on their big day and how Naeun did not deserve any of this. Lana believed Naeun was simply at a wrong place during the time of the occasion. Minhyuk was eager to correct that part, but he didn’t. He thought, for once, he wanted to let Lana decide for her own what to believe in.

                The day at the office was as hectic as any other day. There were files coming in from other different department of the company that required his attention. There countless business meetings Minhyuk needed to be at, and the number of meetings did not pare down ever since his wedding got trashed by his own secret lover. For once he was certain his life and the company he built for years would fall apart, collapse to the ground, but he saw opportunity despite this ‘calamity’ and he simply grabbed it. The news gave him the much needed attention to his company, and more people in the business now knew who Minhyuk was and what he was capable of. This, he thought, was in fact a blessing in disguise. He used this chance to reach out to more investors, perform his best proposals to lure more money in. He was still on top of her game, despite losing deal with Naeun’s dad. This was what the people of economics would say as opportunity cost – where you sacrifice one good thing for another good thing. Perhaps, better, now that he didn’t have to tend to Naeun’s feelings.

                Minhyuk turned his chair around to face big window overlooking the magnificent view of Seoul and wondered how his former fiancé was doing now.

                SOOJUNG was fixing herself up, running her long slender fingers through her newly cut hair that fell just above her chest. It used to be longer than that but something bad happened at home where she had to cut off her hair or she might ruin her image by going to work with partially burnt hair. Soojung sighed with a low growl, hating her twin brother for even existing.

                You’ll pay for this, Jung Ilhoon. 

                “Hey there,” Jongin greeted with a kind smile and was taken lightly by surprise when he realised how different Soojung looked that day. Was it her white blouse or of the full-length chiffon skirt that she wore?

                “Jongin,” Soojung smiled, startled, and moved back an inch to allow herself some space. “I haven’t seen you since Jeju program thingy.”   

                “I know. You look different, though. Are you okay?”

                “I am okay.” Soojung smiled awkwardly, fanning herself with her flailing arms. “It’s getting hot these days.”

                “Is it? I don’t think so.”

                Soojung’s smile died. “I just cut my hair.”

                “Yeah,” Jongin burst into a wide grin. “Of course. Why? Did someone break your heart?”

                “No,” Soojung denied in a flash, sending Jongin off-guard. “No one broke anyone’s heart.”

                Jongin scratched his head, ashamed. “I was just kidding,” Jongin managed humbly.

                “I – I bet you did,” Soojung tapped lightly on Jongin’s arms and hating herself for the random gesture afterward. “It’s my twin brother. He bought this stupid second-hand, or was it third-hand, flat iron online and he wanted to test it out and used my hair as his ‘official launching party’. He plugged it in and pressed my hair. And then got real. That son of a gun’s gonna get it one of these days. He always, always drives me crazy.”

                “What kind of ?” Jongin asked, curious. Without realizing, both of them were already nearing the elevator. He drew his hand out and pressed the ‘up’ button.

                “That cheap thing got overheated and it burnt my hair right out. I swear to God, you can still smell the burning-ness at the end of my once beautiful, luscious hair. I had to cut if all off or someone might mistake me for a witch.”

                “No way? Was it that bad?”

                “Heck yeah. That dimwit – I will – ugh, God knows what I’m gonna do to him.”

                “This new cut suits you though,” Jongin said and the elevator arrived with a ‘ding’.

                “Thank you for cheering me up, but I still miss my old haircut. Don’t you think this is too short?”

                “No. I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you,” Jongin said reassuringly. Soojung offered a grateful smile to him before looking away shyly.

                The door was about to close in on them after they both have gotten in and pressed their respective floor before someone screamed out ‘wait’ from the outside and barged right through after Jongin managed to stop the door from shutting completely.

                Naeun stumbled inside, her perfectly blond hair now dishevelled and both Soojung and Jongin extended their hand to help out poor, clumsy Naeun. She looked up, half embarrassed and worn out, to see the faces of kind strangers who have helped her regain her balance.

                “Oh my,” Naeun called out in surprise, and her lips turned into a smile upon seeing the familiar, handsome intern of hers. “Morning,” she said shortly before turning to his left.

                A beautiful woman whose name she didn’t know but whose face she was sure she had seen before gaped open in awe (Naeun liked to believe that way) and never did Naeun feel gravely embarrassed n her whole life than she was now.

                “Thank you – both of you,” Naeun cleared as she pulled away from both of them and she slid in between the two confused human beings while mumbling excuse me a couple of times for some personal space. Jongin and Soojung moved forward in synch to allow themselves some personal space too.

                “So, Jongin,” Soojung called again as though nothing happened, and took a step closer toward Jongin. “Is that…”

                “Yep,” Jongin nodded.

                “She’s a little…clumsy.”

                Jongin smirked though it did not lift his entire lips. He gave a small nod, and glanced at Naeun’s neutral expression reflected on the door of the elevator.

                UGH HOW ANNOYING.

                Who is this woman and why is she so beautiful?

                Why are you guys whispering?

                How do you guys know each other?

                And why are you guys standing too close to each other?

Also, it’s rude to whisper when someone else is in the room, you know.

                And why in this lowlife scum (Jongin) pretending like he doesn’t know me?

                Is he embarrassed of me?

                He better not be embarrassed of me.

                UGH I WANNA GO OUT

                The ride towards 6^th floor never felt terribly long in Naeun’s life. The two insolent creatures in front of her was still talking and whispering and giggling to one another and it just made her blood boil for no good reasons.

                “Oh right,” Soojung broke out eventually in her normal voice, and Naeun automatically have her eyes set in blazing fire on her beautiful feminine figure.  “The kids are gathering tonight at my place. It’s not exactly finalised but a lot of people are planning to come down. Do you wanna come too? You can ask Sehun to come along. My friends saw the picture of you two and his cute niece yesterday on IG and she was interested to get to know him.”

                Naeun’s eyes darted towards the backside of Jongin to await his answer.

                “I can try asking Sehun first. Any special occasion tonight?”

                “Our debate team won the nationals last week and we only get to celebrate this week because everyone was exhausted after the competition.”

                “Really? Oh wow congratulations. I’ll call you later to inform you about my coming down, okay?”

                “Sure thing,” Soojung nodded with a smile and the door to the elevator opened up. Soojung was leaving the compact square when some figure slipped through them and was going to leave the elevator as well.

                Instinctively, Jongin grabbed Naeun’s by her arm to stop her from getting off the wrong floor.

                “Where are you going, Naeun? This isn’t our floor.”

                Naeun’s remained still and rigid at the remark, and she quietly peeked from behind her hair at the screen above head. It said 6^th floor, and Jongin was adamantly right. She retreated and stood just right in front of him. Soojung grinned, and got off the elevator before saying goodbye to Jongin.

                “So what happened back there?” Jongin started off in a friendly gesture. “You almost fell flat on your face. You need to be more careful, Naeun.”

                “Do I know you, mister?” Naeun snapped coldly, and took a big step away from Jongin, leaving him clueless and in vain.

                “Excuse me?”

              And then the elevator finally arrived at the 8^th floor, much to Naeun’s relief.  “Yeah, excuse you, alright,” Naeun spat out another harsh remark before hurrying to get off the floor.

***

HAPPY 2016 EVERYONE \0/

I didn't realise it but this story is almost 2 years old now(weeps)

So so sorry for the awfully late update and do expect new chapter in less than 3 days :D

Have a lovely day you beautiful people~~ :*