Chapter 9:

“Are you okay?” Dara’s friend Minzy asked her. She found Dara sitting on a bench and staring off into space with a puzzled look on her face. “Hello, earth to Dara??” Minzy waved her hand in front of Dara’s face, causing Dara to snap back to reality.

“Oh, Minzy, hi.” She smiled, then noticed she was still holding her phone, and she put it away quickly.

“Are you okay, unnie?” Minzy asked again.

Dara nodded and assured her friend that she was fine. But her mind was going over the conversation she just had with Jiyong. “Minzy, what does it mean if a guy says he misses you?”

Minzy gasped and leaned back, excitement showing in her eyes. “Unnie, who said they missed you? Is that why you were looking so lost a little while ago?”

“Who me?” Dara laughed and dismissed the notion with a wave of her hand. Then she groaned and shook her head as she turned her body to face Minzy. “It doesn’t mean that he LIKES me, does it? If a guy suddenly says out of the blue that he misses me… I mean, friends can  say that without it meaning that they LIKE you, right?”

Minzy laughed out loud. Her friend Dara was older than her by two years but she was such a ditz sometimes, especially where guys were concerned. “Unnie, who said that to you and how did he say it to you? Tell me everything and I’ll tell you whether he likes you or not.”

Dara immediately relayed her conversation with Jiyong to Minzy, leaving out the irrelevant parts like the fact that Jiyong was her fiancé – sort of. Minzy listened carefully, then nodded her head sagely. “Unnie, that guy likes you.”

“Really?!” Dara slapped her palm against her forehead. “Ohmygod… that can’t happen!” she declared. How could that be that Jiyong would like her? It just didn’t make sense.

“Love doesn’t always make sense,” Minzy said, and Dara realized she had spoken her thoughts out loud. She covered with her hand to prevent anything else from slipping out.

“So who is this guy?” Minzy asked. In the two years she’d known Dara she’d never once seen Dara go out with a guy. She went out with friends, but always in groups, never one on one. And she’d never once hinted that she liked anyone. Of course there were a few guys in school who were more than interested in getting to know Dara better, a few who had asked her out too, but Unnie always managed to turn them down. And she did it in such a way that the guys always remained friends with her, even when they wanted more than that.

“He’s just someone I met,” Dara explained vaguely, not intending to say anything more. But in her mind she couldn’t forget Jiyong’s confession.

**

Jiyong dropped back onto his bed and groaned. “I’m such an idiot!”

It’s been days since he’d told Dara that he missed her, and he hadn’t heard back from her since. He cringed each time he thought of it, not because it wasn’t true, but because he’d shocked her so much that she hung up right after. He’d decided to give her some time and hoped that she would call him back but so far that hadn’t happened.

What should he do?

“Aish, this is so frustrating!” He sat up and took out his phone and stared at it.

Should he call her?

What if she didn’t want to talk to him?

Or worse, what if she didn’t answer his call?

After a few seconds he took a deep breath and began dialing her number. He wasn’t some teenager, he told himself. If he liked this girl then he should be brave enough to tell her so and face up to it. He didn’t quite understand all of his feelings for Dara. But he knew he liked her, that he missed her, and that he wasn’t about to give her up without a fight. Maybe this was something fleeting, but it didn’t feel like it. He couldn’t recall ever feeling like this with any of the other girls he’d dated in the past. And in the past year he hadn’t dated anyone seriously. He’d flirted and did one night stands, but no steady girlfriend. Of course, Dara wasn’t his girlfriend. Technically she was more. She was his betrothed. And the more Jiyong thought about that the more he liked the sound of it.

It took a little while for the phone to connect but then Jiyong heard the phone ring. He waited with bated breath, dreading that she wouldn’t answer, but hoping that she would. With each unanswered ring he felt a growing sense of anxiety. But just when he thought it was going to go to voice mail, he heard her answer.

“Hullo?” Her voice was husky, like she just woke up.

“Did I wake you?” he asked. He heard what sounded like rustling sheets and Dara cleared .

“Jiyong?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“What time is it?” she asked, and he felt bad for waking her up.

“I’m sorry. I thought you’d be awake already by now,” he explained. By his calculation it should be almost 9am. He heard what sounded like her yawning.

“I was up late working on an assignment,” she explained, her voice sleepy. “I don’t have class until this afternoon. Is something wrong?”

You mean apart from my missing you and possibly falling in love with you, he wanted to say. Instead he said, “No, I was just calling to see how you’re doing.”

There was a long pause. He could hear her breathing on the other end.

“Jiyong,” she said, her voice quiet, and deciding to ask the question that had been on her mind the past few days. “Do you like me?”

Now it was his turn to pause, his heart racing while his stomach seemed to churn. “I think so,” he said, honestly.

Dara didn’t say anything as seconds ticked by. She just lay there with the phone pressed to her ear, wondering at the weird butterfly like feelings in her stomach.

“Say something,” he said, softly.

“I don’t know what to say. I feel… weird,” she confessed. Her voice was hushed, like his, and it felt like it was just the two of them in the whole world.

He sighed, disappointed. “You’re cruel, Park Sandara.  First I tell you that I miss you and you hung up on me. Then I confess to you that I like you and you say that you feel weird.”

He heard her giggle, and the sound lifted his spirit.

“Yah,” she said gently. “It’s not my fault I’m so irresistible.”

He smiled. Then said, “I really do miss you, Dara. I think you’ve cast some sort of spell on me.”

She sighed, and then confided to him, “You scared me that last time. No guy’s ever told me that before.”

“Maybe because you’ve never let any of them near you,” Jiyong suggested.

Dara rolled onto her back and stared up at her ceiling. “I guess that’s partly true. I’ve always just been interested in my schooling. Boys and dating always came second, maybe even third in my priorities. So I feel strange having you say those things to me.”

“You feel strange hearing it, I feel strange saying it,” he told her. “I’ve never fallen for someone this quickly.”

At this she giggled. She couldn’t help it. His words made her feel giddy and want to smile.

“See? There you go laughing at me when I’m trying to be brave and confess my feelings to you,” he pouted.

“You are brave,” she admitted, smiling. Her voice was ever so gentle as she said to him, “When I say I feel weird, I don’t necessarily mean weird in a bad way. I just mean that I’ve never… felt … like this.”

Jiyong felt his heart race again in his chest. “Tell me how you feel,” he said.

She was quiet for a long time as she searched for the words to describe what was happening to her. “You’re making me think about you,” she complained.

Jiyong’s lips quirked up into a smile that spread across his face. He pumped his fist into the air.

He cleared his throat then and calmed his voice. “Thinking of me is a good thing,” he told her.

“I don’t know about that. I feel like it’s more of a distraction, one that I can’t afford to have right now when I’m busy with school and finals.”

“There’s a cure for what you’re going through, you know,” he informed her with confidence.

“Oh? You make it sound like I have some sort of disease.”

“You do. It’s called Kwonjiyongnitis.The only cure is to admit to any guy named Kwon Jiyong that you like him, and that you miss him, and that you’re glad you’re engaged to him.”

Dara burst out laughing as she rolled in bed. Hearing her, Jiyong couldn’t help laughing as well. When she finally quieted down, he said to her, “I love the sound of your laugh. Whenever I hear it I can’t help but want to laugh as well.”

Dara smiled and said, “Thank you.”

Jiyong paused, and then said to her, “So what do you say, Dara? Will you give me a chance?”

Her heart began to pound and became dry. “What do you mean?” she asked, holding her breath.

“I mean, instead of breaking this engagment our grandfathers have arranged,” he said carefully. “Will you give me a chance at being your fiancé for real?”

Dara bit at her lip, her heart aflutter and feeling more nervous than she could ever recall in her life. She'd never even gone steady with anyone before. And what if this didn't work out? What if she allowed herself to feel something for Jiyong and then they brokeup down the road.

"I don't know," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "I'm afraid."

"I'm scared too," Jiyong told her. "I've been asking myself how I could feel this way when we've only really gotten to know each other for such a short period of time. But I know that I don't want to let you go. You have no idea what you've done to me Dara. These past few weeks I feel like a different person. For the first time in my life I find myself actually happy with the prospect of who I am, Kwon Jiyong, heir to the Kwon group. And its because I think of you, how brave you are and how you've worked so hard to try and prove yourself to your grandfather. I admire that in you so much. It's inspired me to face my responsiblities and to appreciate all that my grandfather has worked so hard to build for our family. I find myself becoming a better man because of you, Dara. Because I want you to look at me and be proud of me, and perhaps, I hope, maybe even begin to feel for me the way I feel for you."

She listened to his words, amazed and happy for him and her at the same time. "Jiyong," she said, after he finished talking and she had heard all he had to say. "My answer, is yes. Let's give this engagement a try and see what happens."

**