002
CHAPTER TWO

---

 

Later on, I find myself walking to school with my new roommate.

 

We chat and chat, which was unnatural for me especially, both taking our time getting to know each other. And then we lay waste on the minutes talking about ourselves- one of the things I hate the most, knowing I'll have to make up stories to explain my existence and such. Yet I also knew it was unavoidable, since the two of us slept under the same roof, the same bed even. With that, I convinced myself to drill little holes in my wall with the thought that Eunna is different than most, and I can trust her with whatever bits of truth I have the guts to reveal. It made me felt complacent, yet at the same time surprised, that I seemed to ease up to her very fast.

 

Still, I am glad when the spotlight shines on her.

 

Later I find Park Eunna, like me, is a paper airplane girl. Her family lives abroad, and they supported her up until the end of her high school life. They cut off their ties completely after harsh words exchanged at a supposed-to-be-lovely family reunion dinner. She didn’t elaborate on this and I didn’t ask her to, maybe she’d tell me later. And I would have felt sad for her if not for her laughing at her own situation– which surprised me. She assured me that she’d be more grateful if I was happy for her. Eunna told me was the best thing that happened to her since her first kiss.

 

 "They can't live without me," Eunna states. "I'm the only good thing that’s ever happened to them. I’m the only good thing they’ve got left." Then she explains this is probably why they still send her money from time to time. She lived in the dorms on an academic scholarship, but now she's moved out and uses her (insanely huge amount of) stipend and money coming from her weekend job as a bartender and at Mrs. Wu's cafe to pay her dues. Eunna always likes to make her dislike for the male species obvious, although she's yet to tell me the reason why.

 

To everyone, to me, this is who Park Eunna is. And somehow, I feel envious towards her. She’s got nothing to hide, despite the fact that she knows her family isn’t doing well. She is carefree. Like me, she is independent. Yet, unlike me, she isn’t mindful of the eyes that stare after her as she walks in front. She does whatever she wants. She is a free bird.

 

Most of all, there is no need for her to hide, or pretend.

 

But I am a different person to different people and different times. The me of today is the aspiring-writer transfer student from the states, who apparently is the hidden daughter of the Wu family but doesn't live in their house for her reasons. The me of last year, and the year before that? They are completely different people. Now that I have shifted to a new identity, it feels as if those two people are gone– like I’ve killed them, liked I’ve banished them from existence forever.

 

I take a look at my surroundings as the bell rings.

 

"Hey, I gotta run!" Eunna skips off ahead of me when she hears deafening signal marking the start of today’s classes. I stop in my tracks and watch her run to her room, surprised at her sudden disappearance. For me, class doesn't start for another half hour.

 

"See you later!" I call out after her and she gives me a wave.

 

Maybe, just maybe, Park Eunna will be the first person other than the Wu family to hear the truth about me.

 

* * *

---

That, and only that, can be the happiest
Or bitterest hour of your life

---

 

I stare at the piece of my heart that I've left on the freedom wall two days before, squinting as I do to see if this is really what it truly looks like.

 

Apparently it is.

 

And below the paper an arrow leading to another one.

 

---

When you go through the streets
No one recognizes you
No one sees your crystal crown, no one looks
At the carpet of red gold
That you tread as you pass
That nonexistent carpet

---

 

I breathe out slowly and take a sip from the nearly-finished Machiatto in my hands. This was not what I was expecting when I decided to kill time by heading to the freedom wall. A friend, should I call it, someone who desires to share the piece of me I’ve revealed to the world only days before. I take one more look at the text. The part of me that I've left is no longer just mine, someone else was willing to share in it. The idea loops in my head over and over again. It surprised me in a good way.

 

I smile, after rereading the text the arrow pointed to, thinking the person who wrote this here had good taste in poetry. But I wonder why he has chosen to write on someone else’s paper, and I think to myself. Not many normal people know any of Pablo Neruda’s quotes, or his poems for that matter.

 

I give myself no time to think about that as I feel my hand already in my bag groping for a sharpie. Looking around to make sure no one's there, I lean on the wall and begin to write.

 

---

Tell me
Is the rose or is that only her dress

---

 

Ah, one of my failed attempts of being poetic. I wonder when I will ever stop-

 

"Hey," someone from behind says, a chuckle following his words. I turn around to find one of the most 'beautiful' men standing before me. The boy had his hands stuffed in his pockets, gentle smile playing on his lips. His curly, ash blond hair is reminiscent of the little prince from St. Exupery’s famous book, and there is something in the way he looks at me that conveys utmost sincerity and honesty rooted deep inside him. All of a sudden, it felt like one of those cliché scenes from a drama.

 

"Me?" was my scripted answer that came out as I use my thumb to point to myself and look around. This kind of guy couldn't possibly be talking to me.

 

He chuckles once more, glancing left and right. "Who else?"

 

I look down in embarrassment, and I feel him step a little closer.

 

"Don't worry," he says, his eyes on the board are moving from one note to another.  "I don't know which one's yours."

 

I my brow as he observes the papers on the wall. Somehow I think he's lying; but when I look into his eyes I can tell that, like Eunna, he's got nothing to hide.

 

"I'm Lu Han, by the way."

 

I stare at the ground and contemplate on whether telling my name to a complete stranger is a good decision. He chuckles again, when I don't respond to his introduction.

 

"It's okay. I'm not a ert or anything."

 

I force a smile, only half-assured by his statement.

 

Not that I think he’s a ert, but now that he mentions it, what if he is one?

 

"Haneul."

 

There. That wasn't so bad, was it?

 

Luhan takes his hands out of his pockets and extends his left arm forward. "Nice to meet you."

 

Reluctantly, I put my hand forward as well. "Nice to meet you too..."

 

I laugh at myself inwardly. It seemed as though so many people have been indirectly asking for bits of my soul lately.

 

I shake my head and run a hand through my locks, willing myself not to get lost in my thoughts and remain in this reality. So my eyes find themselves on the little prince standing in front of me, again. We stand there in the almost-empty halls of the main building, Luhan and I. I speak only when he does. He asks, I answer. We do this until I’m no longer conscious of the fact that he was someone I’d only just met, but I remain careful as always. Then like Eunna, I learn of him bit by bit. Apparently, we both came to the wall for the same reason, to kill time. It seems as though he, too, delights in reading all these messages of self-expression.

 

Some time, we find ourselves walking to the second floor where most of the classrooms are. We talk along the way and I gain more knowledge on the little things about him, trying my best to speak about myself as well.

 

The bell for the 9:00 class rings, and our conversation is interrupted.

 

"Crap," we chorus, and our eyes meet.

 

"Where's your class?" He says.

"A208. History." My feet were already moving. He smiles when he notices.

"Oh, well, my room's just next to yours."

 

We start walking briskly to our rooms which are, luckily, just a few feet away. I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to find 208. Thank god he mentioned it was right next to his room.

 

"See you later!" We both call out to each other. I enter the room and breathe out a sigh of relief. The professor had not arrived yet.

 

I realize the drink in my hands had not been let go of.

 

My eyes zone in on a nearby trash bin in the corner of the room, then on the number written on the drink.

 

 When I remember who it belongs to, I deliberately scoff as I roll my eyes. We won't be meeting again.

 

I toss the empty cup in the garbage with all the strength I have, thinking my anger towards the coffee thief will disappear with it.

 

With that, I head to my chosen seat.

 

* * *

After school, Eunna I decide to decorate our room. So after a quick stopover at the bookstore, we head directly to the cafe and start putting up a corkboard– which we split, a few posters of people we’ve never met and messages on the walls written on sticky notes and printed postcards of cities we’ve never been in. Eunna and I chat happily as we decorate what would be our new home.

 

"Hey, Eunna," I look her way as I reach over to my desk to pick up different colored sharpie marker.

 

"Mmm?"

 

"Do you know this guy called Lu Han?"

 

Strangely, she stops in the middle of her writing.

 

"The chinese baby?" She turns to me. "Curly blond? Taller than us by about less than a foot?"

 

"Yeah.”

 

“Why do you ask?” Eunna resumes writing as she throws a question back at me.

 

“Nothing. I met him today by the freedom board.” I reply. “He’s actually kind of stalker-like. I mean, I didn’t see him standing there until he said something.”

 

Eunna chuckles. “Guess so…” The bitter tone of voice in which she said her last sentence throws me off, and I find my head whipping over to her direction. She has gone back to writing, and the air around us makes it obvious that the history of Lu Han isn’t the kind of topic she’d prefer to talk about at the moment.

 

It doesn’t surprise me all that much. When I said she looked like she had nothing to hide, I meant it. Surely, we all have our secrets. However, even though I know Eunna a little bit more now, I would still say she is genuine and I feel like I envy her even more. In truth, she seems so amazingly cheerful that if she really ever was keeping things, she was doing a really good job. I want that for myself as well.

 

I, on the other hand, am a walking mess. You can see it through my eyes, all my feelings mixed and whatnot. I wish I could conceal them as well as Eunna. I don’t blame her, though, for keeping things from me. It’s not like you’d expect anyone to tell every detail of their life to someone they just met.

 

So I try to change the topic. “You know, this thing I’m writing now…”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“I put it up on the freedom board last Saturday.” I take several pieces of multi-coloured sticky notes, writing two or three words from the quote on each of the pieces.

 

“The weird thing is,” I keep talking as I arrange the sticky notes neatly on the wall, hoping that Eunna has forgotten that I asked her about Lu Han in the first place. “Someone wrote something below it.”

 

I flatten a piece of sticky note with my palms. “As in, on the same paper.”

 

I feel her eyes on me. “Really?” she says, and I can hear her bare feet padding on the floor. Her head pops up beside mine as she starts to read the words aloud.

 

“Someday somewhere…” she mutters. “Okay what?”

 

She continues on to the next pieces of paper. “Tell me, is the rose or is that only her dress…” Eunna stops to think as if she’s read this before, and a after a while forms into an ‘o’ shape. “Isn’t this from the book of questions?”

 

I nod as I push the cap of the marker back on, then I toss it on the desk.

 

“Well, what did the mysterious person write?” She asked.

 

“Well, he continued half of the first quote… then penned in the second verse of La Reina.”

 

“Which goes?”

 

I raise my brow at her before clearing my throat. And before I know it, I am twirling around I recite the second verse.

 

“When you go through the streets

No one recognizes you

No one sees your crystal crown, no one looks

At the carpet of red gold

That you tread as you pass

That nonexistent carpet”

 

Eunna has her eyes on her phone now, and she smirks before following after me.

 

“and when you appear

All the rivers sound

In my body, bells

Shake the sky

And a hymn fills the world”

 

She circles around me once and caresses my face jokingly. I roll my eyes, but laugh, as she stops and mimics the way erts in movies smell women’s hair.

 

"Only you and I."

 

Eunna takes my hands in hers and spins me around, as if were playing ring around the rosie.

 

"Only you and I, my love."

 

We drop on the bottom bunk of the bed.

 

"Listen to me."

 

Silence bursts through the air when she ends the piece, and the next thing we know, we are laughing.

 

“What.. was.. that?” I say in between breaths as we calm down. She shrugs jokingly as she takes a seat on her study table. At this time, the idea of cleaning up or continuing to decorate our room is totally out of our heads.

 

“Wow,” she laughs. “Whoever wrote that thing, must be into you.”

My eyebrows furrow. “You can’t even tell if it’s a guy or not...”

 

Then she locks eyes with mine. “It’s 2015, babe. Who said it had to be a guy?”

 

I stare at her in confusion. A smirk forms on her plump limps, and I can see her biting back a laugh. My eyes don’t leave hers and my expression doesn’t change.  Seeing this, she wiggles her eyebrows and gives me a knowing wink. Suddenly, like a wave that washes over me on a hot day, I realize what she was talking about. My eyes widen in surprise and I bite on my bottom lip. Eunna collapses on her desk as she lets out a loud, yet feminine, laugh.

 

“You!” I point at her and throw a pillow her way. She catches it just in time and throws in back at me. I successfully dodge it.

 

“Kidding!” She beams as she gets up. “Seriously, though. What did the penmanship look like?”

 

Her question stops my train of thought. I try to think of what the handwriting looked like, but I can’t exactly pinpoint the defining characteristics of whoever’s penmanship that was. It might be a boy, because I remember that it was a bit all over the place. And a girl’s handwriting would be neater than that.

 

“Maybe it is a guy…” I whisper to myself, but Eunna’s ears seemed to pick up what I said.

 

“Dude, it’s totally a guy. Girls don’t do vandal,” she stops. “Or maybe they do…But it’s definitely a guy!”

 

I head to my desk. “I thought you hated men?”

 

Eunna slides a white cardigan over her tank top. “Correction: hate,” she winks. “And I have my reasons.” She throws me the denim jacket hanging on the wall by the door. “Besides, half the earth’s population are men, I can’t end up hating all of them. I should at least pretend to be kind.”

 

She takes my hand and pulls me towards the door.

 

“Come on. Let’s go help out downstairs!”

 

* * *

 

Eunna and I head downstairs and head to the area behind the counter immediately, seeing there is only one person working the shop. I volunteer to take over the register, passing on working the drinks at the back because I feel my knowledge regarding coffee is still quite limited. I make a mental note to ask Eunhye-unnie or someone else to teach me more about the drinks on the menu.

 

“Where is everyone?” Eunna looks around. The cashier, a part-timer named Taeyong, gives her a smile. “They went shopping for supplies and appliances with Mrs. Wu,” he says. “I think they’re making improvements to the café.

 

“Oh,” is what Eunna says as she slides her apron on. She glances at her watch. “It’s almost six, though. They’re out pretty late.”

I voice my agreement before looking over to Taeyong. “Aren’t you a highschooler?”

He nods. “I’m in my last year of high school, ma’am.”

 

Somehow, I don’t seem surprised. “And you’re already working? Wow,” Eunna says. “Shouldn’t you be doing homework?”

 

He replies with a smile. “I’ll be leaving when Kris-hyung comes back from basketball practice. He said to wait.”

 

Another “oh,” is the only reply Eunna and I are able to give, as the bell signaling the arrival of a new customer rings.

 

“Good evening,” I turn around. “How may I-“

 

“Hey sis.”

 

A tall, blond-haired man is standing before me on the other side of the bartop. He winks at me as the word ‘sis’ escapes his mouth, and I can only gape at him.

 

I have never met Kris Wu before today, and I am beyond surprised as he is very different from what I had pictured him as. Mrs. Wu never got the chance to properly introduce us, since it seemed like he was always away. And when she said her son was tall, I never imagined he would be tower tall. I mean, he’s taller than the guy who stole my coffee! My eyes scrutinize his figure a bit longer than I intended, and I notice how well his body is built. The way his tight-fitting baseball shirt hugs his trimmed chest makes me want to revoke my title as his (pretend) sister. It’s probably from all that basketball training. However, putting aside the physical features, Kris Wu is probably not my type.

 

And that’s a good thing, because there is no way I can pretend to be his little sister if I am attracted to him in that way.

 

My eyebrows scrunch and my eyes disappear as I try to remember his Chinese name. Mrs. Wu informed me beforehand that it was a name he didn’t like to go by. For a second, I wondered why, but a little later something in my head lights up.

 

“Yifan-oppa,” I smile evilly as I joke like a real sibling would. “Hello!”

 

I hear Eunna try to hide her laugh. She probably knows. “You had a sister, Yifan?”

 

He twitches at the mention of his real name. Twice.

 

“Cousin, but she could be.” He nods and looks over to Taeyong. “Tao’s waiting outside,” he waves. The young boy bows back politely and takes off his apron before heading out the front door.

 

Kris turns back to me and Eunna. “Dude, don’t ever call me that in school,” he huffs. “It’s Kris! This name is my style!”

 

“Your style?” I choke out. Eunna claps her hands as she laughs at my reaction. “But Yifa-“

 

“Cut it,” he deadpans.

 

I giggle. Somehow, joking around with Kris like this makes me feel close to him already. “What do I call you, then?” I say like we’re meeting for the first time, which we are. I can see Eunna’s amused expression fade into a confused one.

 

“Kris is fine, or bro,” he smiles cheekily. “Don’t even think about calling me oppa again.”
 

“Bro? Seriously?” Eunna butts in. “What the hell is going on?”

 

I look over to my roommate, and she gazes back at me with questioning eyes. Promising to answer all her questions later, I turn back to my new older brother.

 

“What can we do for you,” I decide against using bro, since just thinking about saying it is weird. “…Kris.”

                                                                                                                                                                                   

“Oh yeah,” he snaps back to reality. “Why was I here- Oh!” Kris puts his duffel on the countertop. “Come to the start of the sem party,” he looks at me, then at Eunna.

 

“Huh?” I look at him, confused.

 

A glisten could be seen in my roommate’s eyes and she clasps her hands together. “Crap! I forgot to tell you!”

“It’s an event,” she says. “Where the students rent out an entire club at the beginning of the semester.”

She looks at me. “Everyone’s invited. Though, not everyone goes so we all pretty much have a lot of space in the club.”

 

Did I mention I hate social events?

 

“So,” Kris says. “You’re going, right?”

 

I shrug. He frowns at my reply. “Come on, I always go. Therefore, my sister should go too.”

 

“What kind of logic is that?” Eunna scoffs jokingly, which earns her a death glare.

 

“Eunna’s going,” Kris says, using his hand to silence my roommate before she can protest. I look at her and see Kris wink at her from the corner of my eye. “Come on, I came here to invite you myself.”

 

I roll my eyes and raise my brows, as if to say ‘so what?’

 

“So, you’re going right?” She and Kris both ask.

 

Still, I shrug. “I’ll think about it…When is this, uh,” I look him in the eye, “thing?”

 

“Well,” Eunna runs a hand through her hair. “It’s always on the first day of the sem so…”

She looks at Kris.

 

And my eyes widen.

 

“Tonight?!”  I panic. How am I even supposed to find time to get ready when there’s no one running the café?

 

“That is such a freshman reaction,” Kris mutters to himself and chuckles. He wore an amused expression on his face. “Which is why you guys should go get ready. Eunhye-noona’s coming back in a while. Pick you up in an hour,” he makes his way to the door.

 

“But-“

 

“See you later!” Kris waves, his back facing us.

 

I sigh, turning to my roommate. She can only shrug.

 

“Well,” Eunna puts her hand on my shoulder. “I guess we should go get ready.”

 

I am left with no choice.

 

 

---

a/n: hola banana! ok what lol. updated. i'm actually wondering how often i should post updates because i have a few chapters pre-written hmm. anyway, feel free to leave comments and point out mistakes i might have missed. also, i might poster ch. 3 sooner because it's one of my favourite chapters. yCutou'll see why. haha. toodles! thanks for all your l.o.v.e. luuuuv! lol. sorry. feel free to brick me. -bella ( pstd. 150610 | edtd. 150616 )