“It feels really weird you know”

I know how twisted it was, having Song Yunhyeong here taking me to a place I had not known, but for me, the most shocking part was having myself inside his car and following whatever he would want me to do. I had a strong feeling that this would be a long lasted night; my mind was vague on what I’m going to do for the next hour as I kept thinking what would he do once we get there? I looked at the side of his face, sticking his eyes on the road and the little smirk he did made me suddenly wonder if his appearance had always been this strongly masculine—if this was his everyday look, I wouldn’t be surprised he ended up being a celebrity after all.

“I mean, it’s just weird that I’m actually hanging out with someone I dislike” I continued, landing my eyes on the view outside.

We were entering a district that I had never been to before and suddenly the tall buildings had disappeared, replaced with medium sized apartments, motels, and tons of restaurants standing on the side of the road. Then I realized the reflection of me and Song Yunhyeong on the window and I could see he smiled as he turned to me.

“It’s very polite of you saying dislike instead of hate” he stated. “I always knew you’re that kind of person”

            I cringed. He took the last turn and parked the car in front of a motel. I shivered myself.

“Not like it matters. My diction don’t classify what kind of person I am” thought I gave him the cold shoulder, but it was just me being scared out of nowhere.

            I was scared probably because we stopped in front of a freaking motel. I really wished he was just about to make an important call or text message so he had to stop by or maybe meeting someone before he continue the journey to our actual destination—but he didn’t. He literally stopped the car, pulled the hand brake and took off his seat belt. Amusement park sounded really good now, I regret saying I was not in the mood to go there, amusement park was much better than parking in front of a motel in a place I did not know.

“Unfortunately, it does.” He replied. “Come on, we have arrived” he couldn’t be serious.

“Seriously? You’re taking me here?”

            He confusedly blinked.

“Well, yeah?”

            Why was he acting this way? Couldn’t he see how scared I was? This motel was scary; couples were going in and out of it in a very disgraceful way. When a man took you to a place like this, any kind of girl was allowed to start worrying. This was not good, why was he taking me to this place? No matter how much I hated him, I knew he was not that kind of guy. He was too nice to be that kind of guy—I couldn’t even stare at him now. He opened the door but stopped when he realized I was not even pulling off my seat belt.

“You’re not going, Lee Hayi-ssi?” he asked.

            I turned away from him, didn’t even bother to say anything. I was scared, it was dark outside and I had no clue how to get back to my district. It was probably in the other side of Seoul but hell I did not even know what bus to take if I run away. I did not want to be here anymore, I had a bad feeling about him. We ended up being in this kind of place at night, he could do whatever he wanted because I was far away from my friends and family and he knew I was clueless about direction (probably).

 The negative thoughts about him grew inside my mind like a virus. I became more and more afraid as I sweat myself even when the air was cold. I felt his hand poked my shoulder and I jolted immediately as I tried to distance myself from him.

“Lee Hayi-ssi, what’s wrong?” He pulled his arm back as he saw how I reacted. “You’re sweating” he noticed.

I closed my eyes and inhaled. “Can we just…go home?” I asked.

“But we’re here already. The show is about to start, are you sure you want to go home?” he tried to persuade me.

            I stopped breathing.

“The show?” I repeated him.

            What show? He didn’t say anything about a show earlier. How a show could possibly being held in a motel? Or maybe…

“Yes, the show” he optimistically nodded, and then he snapped himself as if he was reminded of something. “Oh God, you don’t seriously think I would take you into that motel, right?” he chuckled.

            Well, it was not the right time to chuckle. I was scared to death over here, thinking if he would ever do strange things to me. Once his car was parked in front of the motel, how could I not start thinking negatively? So if he was not taking me into that motel, then where he would take me? And what was with the show and everything? He confused me; he could’ve just said where we were going since the beginning!

“Well, then where are you taking me seriously?! Can’t you see how scared I am? I don’t even know where we are right now, and suddenly we are in front of a motel and…”

“Relax, Lee Hayi-ssi. I won’t do that kind of thing to you.” He calmly said. “That’s why this place is a surprise. You can’t even see the entrance door from here, that’s what makes this place special.”

            What was he talking about? He closed his door and walked to my door. He opened the door for me and waited for me to come out.

“Come on” he said. “This place is far from what you think. You don’t have to worry about anything, trust me” he gave me a warm smile from where he stood as his arm carefully grabbed the door before I finally pulled off my seatbelt and got out of the car.

“Uhm, if you’re not comfortable with your uniform, you can replace your blazer with my jacket.” He offered me as he closed the door.

            I did not even give him an answer, but I turned around only to find him walking towards me with his black leather jacket and placed it around my shoulder. I could smell his perfume from the jacket as I felt the warmth on my shoulder. Surprisingly, I let his jacket lied there and followed him when he started walking towards the motel.

            The motel was dark and only accompanied by purple-ish neon light in the corner. The receptionist seemed to ignore our presence and Song Yunhyeong quickly guided me to the stairs after we took the left turn. The stairs led us to the basement, it was darker than the previous part we were in, but in the end of the narrow aisle, I could see orange kind of light from a glass door that shined to the ground. I took the stairs carefully because I couldn’t see clearly, but he gave me his hand and he guided me.

“Be careful” he said. I nodded.

            When we reached the basement, he got his hand off me and walked towards the glass door which was then stood in front of me. I could only see the light as the glass was blurred, but from where I stood, I could hear the sound of music and people laughing from inside.

“What is this place?” I asked him.

            Song Yunhyeong walk towards the glass door and pushed it open, showing me a friendly scene of a café with a tiny stage in the corner of the room where a man stood, talking confidently through his microphone and making the whole room laughed. The drums were played every time this man cracked a joke and all of the people in this place seemed to be having fun—a different way of having fun. 

“Ta-da!” he said, “After you, lady” he let me go inside first.

            I slowly walked inside, gazing at every corner of this room. The tables, the people, the bartender and the smell of coffee from all over the walls, and the room that seemed to never be decorated properly but still giving me the vibe of an underground café that I used to see in movies. I never knew this kind of place exist in Seoul.

“Here” Song Yunhyeong led me to a round table for two in the back row of the crowd. He pulled out a chair for me and I seated myself comfortably.

“Two, please” he signalized the bartender as he sat on the chair in front of me. “I’m sure you’re fine with a cup of hot latte, right?” he made sure.

            I did nothing but nod. I brought my focus to the middle aged man on stage. It seemed that he went straight to this place right after he done his work at the office. He was a bit chubby but yet he looked kind of younger than his age. He held the microphone comfortably and blabbering about a story of his boss who could never seem to give up on pissing him off at the office. He made everybody laughed—including me.

“He is funny” I said to Song Yunhyeong as I pointed at the man.

            He laughed.

“Yeah, he is.” He agreed. “He comes here every Friday night just to tell us a story about his boss. I think his boss is kind of stupid and he always got pissed about it. He knows how to make complain become a joke like that”

“You come here often?” I asked him.

“Only on Friday night.” The waitress came and served us the hot latte he ordered earlier, I grabbed and took a sip as I waited for him to continue—the latte was too good to be true. “They held a comedy stage every Friday night for workers like that man to release their stress. Sometimes it’s the staff itself giving jokes on the stage, sometimes it’s the audience, basically anyone can come on stage and share their story”

“And you like their stories?” I put down the cup.

He raised his shoulder. “Well, they have good sense of humor” he leaned against his chair. “Besides, I don’t really know where else can I find a place to release my stress without having cameras around me. Most of the people here are middle aged. They don’t really care about who I am, so this place is perfect for me.”

            This night turned so deep in a blink of an eye. I realized, all he needed was a space for him, for privacy. I was not familiar with a celebrity life, but from what I got from him, the burden that he carried as a famous person affected his life in many ways. Maybe, just maybe, he didn’t call me to hang out specifically with me—he needed someone to share his deep thought to, and somehow, it pointed to me.

“How did you find this place anyway?” I asked.

He inhaled. “I was running away from my manager, I didn’t know where I was going to, I just drove far away from the city. I got tired and wanted to take rest in the motel upstairs, but when I passed the stairs, I heard laughed from the basement and the sound of drums being played. I got curious so I came by to take a look and I ended up falling in love with this place ever since.”

“Wait, you ran away from your own manager?”

“My tight schedule ” he raised his shoulder.

            The laughs became inaudible to me. I was gazing at the table when the man on stage said his thank to the audience and left to his table. I zoned out because the thought of Song Yunhyeong’s life bothered my mind, I thought being a celebrity was all easy, but it wasn’t.

“That day in the mall, I want to apologize for my attitude” his statement shocked me.

“Eh?” I sat straight as I blinked my eyes a few times.

“I know I was rude for taking your phone and put down my number without your permission. I thought about it a lot before, how if I choose random people to be friends with? To share my secret and to laugh with.”

“Well, that’s a crazy idea” I responded.

He laughed for a bit. “Of course it is” he leaned his arms to the table. “I don’t know how it ended up being you, but I’m glad it wasn’t someone else.”

            I smiled and for some reasons I felt bad for what I had done to him. I accused him for breaking my relationship with Mino when all he wanted from me was to be his friend. He could have asked me to in a better way, in a way that would not create a misunderstanding. But after tonight, I could not blame him for more, it was not his fault—there was no one to blame. I treated him bad when he even kept saying my name in a formal way. I bluntly stared at him who was gazing at the stage.

“I-I’m sorry” I said.

            His eyes quickly turned to me as he looked at me in surprise.

“What for?” he asked.

“Well…I mistreated you since we met. I feel so bad for it because I didn’t know that…”

“You didn’t, Lee Hayi-ssi.” He cut me.  “You didn’t mistreat me; it was your reaction to what I have done to you. I know, I caused a mess in your life, I know, I did something wrong to you, and instead, I should be the one apologizing”

            Why was he being like this? He made me feel even worse by acting that way, but after all, wasn’t he always this nice, even before I knew his true disposition?

“In fact, one of the reasons why I bring you here tonight is because i want to say sorry for I did” he said.

I narrowed my eyes, “Do you even know what you did, Song Yunhyeong?”

“Doesn’t matter what it is I still did you wrong.” He paused. He looked deeply into my eyes and I realized how black his eyes were, not sure if it was lenses or not. “I’m sorry, I hope you can forgive me” he said sincerely.

            I was not planning to give an answer. He did nothing wrong to me, but even if I said so he would keep denying. I did not say anything, there was nothing for me to forgive, but one thing that I really wanted was for him to stop speaking formally to me and me to get away from the awkwardness of being with him. I smirked as I adjusted my seat.

“You know what?” his big eyes focused on me. “Stop speaking formally to me” I said looking down to my lap because I felt shy out of nowhere. “How old are you anyway? What should I call you?” my voice became smaller and smaller, I was being unconfident with what I said as it was totally unplanned. What was I saying, seriously?

            I stole glances at him to see how he reacted to it. I wished he could move on from apologizing and just go with what I was bringing him to. He smiled widely, not sure if he was happy that he thought I forgave him or he was laughing at my stupid words. I was certain because of the second option.

“Why so sudden, Lee Hayi-ssi?” he laughed. Yep, definitely because of my stupid words. He even questioned it, nice move Lee Hayi.

“Just stop speaking formally to me!” I avoided his eyes. “I-I just want to be a proper friend to you. Am I not allowed to do that?!”

“Okay! Okay!” he rested his elbow on the table. “Hayi-ah, I am 19 years old and you can call me Yunhyeong oppa starting now, get it?” I was not ready for this—no, not the oppa part.

“You know one thing that I really hate in this world is calling a guy with oppa. But since you are extremely nice and kind, I will make an exception for you” I said full of energy.

He laughed, again. He always managed to keep himself happy—he was always happy. This was one thing that I learned from him; he had a kind heart and also a happy disposition. Unlike Kim Hanbin who was always gloomy and full of hatred. He was exactly the kind of person I seek in terms of friendship, I needed him in my life to motivate me and keep me optimistic. So weird that yesterday I couldn’t stop blaming and hating him, but now look at me, feeling so glad he appeared in my life.

“Yunhyeong oppa” I said.

            He looked back at me as he waited for me to speak.

“Thank you” I continued.

He furrowed his eyebrows “For what?”

“For everything”

Do you miss Hanbin already? ;)

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