“OUCH!” my right foot suddenly hurt when I put weight on it. Also, I feel numb from the waist, down. The impact of my fall is truly painful.

Worriedly, Seunghyun rushed to me. He wrapped his arm around my waist to keep me balanced while his other hand is holding my arm tightly. Still in pain, he walked me to an empty table, clumsily pulled out a chair and helped me settle down. “Tell me what’s hurting” he said. His voice full of worry.

I looked at him in disbelief for a while. I’m not expecting him to this concerned. Truth is, I thought he’s going to brush off my pain and go on with the night, but no, he seemed frightened that I’m hurt. What can I say? He really have a soft side and believe it or not, I like seeing it more than the cold one.

“I think I twisted my ankle or something” I told him. And without asking, he crouched in front of me and lifted my foot to his lap carefully as if he’s holding a fragile glass.

Seunghyun removed my shoe (if only I can curse it for damaging me), then gently checked my foot. Obviously, it’s swelling, badly. Things I hate about my body are, I bruise easily, I swell in minor accidents like no other, and I get fat horrendously. Twisting my ankle is not new for I’ve experienced it in full swing years ago by wearing high heels too. “This is bad” he looked up at me and we just stared at each other for a while. I shook my head. “It is. But, there’s no need to worry. I know what to do with it” I said, hoping that it loosened him up. He raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “What are you going to do?” he asked. I smiled. “Can you ask for a glass of ice?”

We are in a fine-dining restaurant where people looked so regal, but I got to do what I got do, and that is to attend to my swollen ankle to not worsen it more. Good thing the area where we’re at is not crowded. There are about ten tables and only two are occupied. Seunghyun and I are seated in the table in the corner.

The waiter arrived, smiling widely at us with the glass of ice on a tray. He said something in Korean that made Seunghyun panic. I don’t know what it’s about but his reaction to what the man said is intriguing. “What’s going on?” I asked, after a while. “He think we’re lovers”. The moment I heard it, I was bummed out all of a sudden. Seunghyun looked at me as if asking to feed him the right words. I took a deep breath and smiled at the waiter. “Hmmm…Mister –“ I called and he looked at me with a wide smile on his face. “You’ve mistaken” I told him slowly and pointed at Seunghyun and I “We’re not lovers” I make an X using my arms “Not L O V E R S” I repeated. Desperate, “If you’re translating what I’m saying, this is going to be done” I told Seunghyun who is just watching me.

How awkward is that?

“OK” I clasped my hands and sighed. He still looked awkward. Can’t he just move on? “Back to my ankle” I said and checked it just to see how badly swollen it is. “Are you sure you don’t want to be brought to the hospital?” he asked. I nod. “Yep!” With my handkerchief, I made a cold pack and put it on my ankle. This will take about twenty minutes. “Seunghyun” I called. “Hmmm”

“OH!” to my surprise, he’s crouched down in front of me again. I must’ve been so focused to what I’m doing that I didn’t even notice him moving out of his seat. Awkward, yet again. “Your Omma and Noona are on the other side of the restaurant. You go there now since they’ve been waiting for you and this will take some time. Kindly tell them that I’ll be there after a while”

He looked straight into my eyes and sighed. “I’ll call them”. “NO!” I countered. “Don’t tell them what happened. This night