Chapter 25 – Let’s try this again

After an uneventful morning full of classes in which she didn’t have anyone to talk to, Insook was sitting in the bleachers with V, attempting to work on their Japanese project. Attempting because, in reality, there wasn’t much work being done between them. It was a beautiful early summer day, not a cloud in the sky and the weather perfectly warm. V had even discarded his jacket and was now lying on his back on top of it, an arm thrown over his face to shield it from the sun. Insook was munching on a sandwich, and alternatingly throwing suggestions at him for the plot of their skit; most of which he dismissed.

“Well fine, you come up with something then” she retorted after his last rebuke, crumpling a page from her notebook into a little ball and throwing it at him.

“Hey!” he complained as it hit him, opening his eyes and raising his head up to look at her.

Insook chuckled. The teenage boy propped himself up on his elbow and tossed the paper ball back at her, but missed, making her chuckle. He sighed and finally sat up straight, scooting over a little nearer to where she was sitting.

“We should make it a love story,” he grinned wickedly, “with lots of kissing scenes.”

“No way!!” she shrieked as he’d brought his face way too close to hers, and pushed him away, causing him to fall backwards, -first unto the lower step of the bleachers, which sent her into loud peals of laughter.

“Waaae?!” he grumbled, “it’s a great idea!” he protested. But then he started laughing too.

“V, we have to do this in front of the whole class, stop being ridiculous…”

“Ridiculous? Me??” he asked, clasping his hands together and batting his eyelashes crazily, which sent her into even more fits of giggles.

“How about… we make it about a transfer student who goes to Japan?” she suggested, trying to steer their conversation back on the actual topic.

“Oooh… that’s not a bad idea.” he said, picking himself up and sitting next to her again.

“And then the host family has to show her around and stuff…”

“I like it!” declared the ashen-haired boy, and Insook beamed. She wasn’t usually very vocal in group projects, but she was rather pleased that he’d liked her idea.

V opened his mouth to say something, but the first bell indicating the end of lunch time rang, and they both turned their heads in direction of the school.

“d*mn, already?” muttered Insook, “we didn’t really get much done, did we?” she added, tossing her notebook inside her bag.

“I guess this means we have to work on it even harder tomorrow!” he said, flashing her a big smile, and extending a hand to help her get up. She took it, blushing a little, and dusted herself off before they both headed back towards the school.

They parted ways at the entrance since Insook had gym 5^th period, but V walked back into the main building, for his Korean class.

As he was making his way towards the main staircase, he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.

“Hey kiddo!”

He turned around to see Rapmonster standing there, offering him a tentatively friendly smile.

“Oh, hello” replied the younger boy, throwing Rapmon off his beat, his politeness leaving him momentarily speechless.

They walked up the first flight of stairs in silence, next to each other before the blonde boy could come up with something to say.

“Oh!” he exclaimed, as if he’d just remembered something, “Suga had us listen to that song you guys did together… it’s really good!”

V stopped walking to give him a look of curious surprise and Rapmon chuckled.

“Yeah… be careful…” he said jokingly, “I think Suga is plotting to recruit you into our team…” he added in a stage whisper, leaning over into the younger boy’s side as if he was telling him a secret.

V laughed, and it seemed to ease the tension between Rapmonster’s shoulders.

“Oh, and by the way,” he went on, as they started going up the stairs again, “we’re gonna be on this Friday. Why don’t you come?”

“On?” echoed V.

“Yeah, at the club. Performing.”

“Oh.”

There was an awkard pause, during which Rapmon felt like V should say something, a yes, or a no, or a maybe, but the ashen-haired boy just remained pensive, and the elder wondered if he hadn’t jumped the gun a little in his attempt to reclaim their friendship.

“Yeah, maybe.”

Blatant surprise showed up on the blonde boy’s face, but at that exact moment, the last bell rung and he swore.

“Sh*t!! Ok, see you later!!” he called out, and took off at a dash towards his classroom.

V just turned to watch him go, shrugged slightly, and then casually trotted back up the stairs to his own class, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

***

Much later in the evening, Rapmonster was sitting at “his” table, in Soonja’s restaurant, earphones plugged in his ears, right hand drumming a pen on the notepad in front of him, in deep concentration over the lyrics he was trying to write.

He’d come hoping to see Soonja after rehearsals, of course, but she wasn’t there, so he’d started working on his song, and somehow had been struck by inspiration and written furiously for the last hour or so. Now he was re-assessing his work, muttering the words over the beat that played in his ear, unaware that he must look more than a little coo-coo to the outside observer, but it didn’t matter too much since the restaurant was positively empty. Besides himself, the only other customer was an old regular, who’d fallen asleep at his table over a half-drunk bottle of soju, as well as the kindly ajumma who ran the place.

He was so lost in concentration that he didn’t notice Soonja sitting at the seat in front of him until she kicked him under the table. He snapped up, startled, and then his eyes widened when he saw her sitting here, smirking at him.

“Hey there, Crapmonster” she said in a sing-song voice, as he pulled his earphones out.

“Oh hey, I thought you weren’t working today?” he asked her, too flustered to pull out his usual greasy charm on such short notice.

“I’m not, I just came cuz mom wanted me to drop something off.”

“Mom?” he glanced at the lady who was standing behind the cash register, counting bills, “Your family owns this place?”

She chuckled and nodded. Rapmon was so surprised by her sudden appearance that he didn’t really know what to say, and just kinda sat there as she put her elbows on the table and rested her chin over her clasped hands, staring at him with a strange expression.

“What?” he finally asked, unnerved.

“Always just full of surprises, aren’t you, monster-boy?” she replied, and he just looked at her, confused.

“What do you mean?”

“Just that…” she trailed off, looking out the window, “I guess there might be more to you than meets the eye.”

“Oh?”

“I overheard you talking to your friend last night.” she said, looking back at him.

The blonde boy stayed quiet, waiting for her to finish.

“I guess I didn’t expect this kind of sentiment out of someone like you.”

“Hobi’s my friend. Of course I would be there for him no matter what.”

“Not that many people would though. Not for a gay friend.”

“Well, I happen to think that we shouldn’t judge people based on their uality,” he replied, flatly.

“Hmm…” mused the pretty girl, not answering.

“Love is such a basic human emotion. I wish we lived in a world where people were just free to love however and whoever they want.”

The serious and sincere tone in his voice made her lose the smirk, and really look at him. He stared back at her, eyes unwavering and she felt her heart start beating a little faster, quite against her will.

Finally, she stood up and sighed. “Well… I guess that’s long enough for a friendly chat today.” she told him, completely changing the subject. “You should probably go.”

“ME?! Why do I have to go??” he retorted in a whining voice, which made her crack up.

“It’s already past 10pm and there’s nobody else here, so if you leave, we can close up shop and that means I can actually get some sleep tonight.” explained the girl, as if this was all very obvious information.

Rapmonster looked around the restaurant and realized that indeed, he was the only one there, the older man having packed up and left at some point while he was busy working on his lyrics.

“Ah well, I guess I should probably get in early anyways…” he muttered, as if he wasn’t just doing this for her, and proceeded to pack all of his things into his carry-bag.

“See you again, Crapmonster,” she teased as he got up to leave, “it was almost nice talking to you.”

The blonde boy shook his head and tried to hide his smile as he headed towards the door. “You too” he said, waving at her as he left.

The bell tinkled as the door closed behind him, and Soonja stood there for a while, watching his retreating figure through the glass window, slightly infuriated that he didn’t even look back a single time to see if she was looking at him.

“That boy must really like you.”

Soonja jumped a little at the sound of her mother’s voice right next to her. “Mom! You scared me!”

“He comes here every single day!” chuckled the older woman.

Soonja shook her head and went over to the door to lock it, and turn on the “Closed” sign.

“He seems nice.”

“Mom.” said Soonja, in a voice that breeched no nonsense.

“He’s very handsome.”

“Mom. Please.” repeated the teenage girl, in an exasperated voice.

“What? I’d like to have grandchildren, you know…”

“MOM!!!!!”