CHAPTER 4: Feelings

Back in high-school, Dal-Hyang had a huge crush on JooHyun, his best friend. On a school dance, he asked her out, and on the day of the school dance, confessed his feelings to her. She accepted his heart for some good months and they dated. Dal-Hyang was head over heels for her and would give her handmade gifts very often. However, JooHyun didn’t really know how she felt for him. He was really just some fun guy to her—not really a lover. She never completely understood what love meant and how much Dal-Hyang had fallen for her.

A few months before college started, JooHyun broke things off, saying that she didn’t want to keep pretending that she felt the same way. In-love Dal-Hyang was gravely heartbroken by this.

Feeling like she did a bad thing, JooHyun still wanted to be friends with him and Dal-Hyang agreed, but after that, he never saw her the same way anymore. His heart hardened and closed up after the bomb that JooHyun dropped. His interest in girls and relationships ceased. He claimed that the break-up didn’t really matter, but truthfully, it changed a whole lot of things in him. The immature man became cold towards people and usually had breakdowns of depression—all because JooHyun didn’t feel the same way about him.

All that mattered to him now was what songs he’d play for his night shifts. Anything else but work is simply just not on his mind. He tries his hardest not to shun people off, though… especially JooHyun since deep inside him, no matter how much he denied it, he needed her in his life.

But on the last weekend of June, the date they had together was an eye-opener for JooHyun. She realized she missed being with him—just laughing with him, eating with him, and clinging onto him like the old days. Even the way he cared for her like holding her hand when she almost tripped, and even insisting to send her home properly after drinking, it made her heart thump. Every little thing she didn’t take notice of before became the trigger that started beating her heart.

        “How should I do this?” JooHyun huffed and looked at Yoona with pleading eyes. “I love him, Yoona… I can’t believe I’m just starting to realize this.”

          “Well, what are you planning to do?” Yoona asked.

          “I want to confess to him as soon as possible. I can’t let this linger in my heart for too long. I’ve already been caught a while ago by HaYeon Unnie and Fany Unnie. It’s so embarrassing…”

          “Hm… My advice is… just go straight for it. If he loved you once, chances are, he’ll love you again.”

          “Are you sure?” JooHyun pouted.

          “Well, when are you planning on saying it? I could help you.”

          “No, I want to be alone with him. I was thinking maybe tonight at the bar at midnight, when he’s on his break. Maybe take a walk with him for a minute or two.”

          “Mm…” Yoona nodded. As a Lovely Angel with powers, Yoona wanted to at least help JooHyun get her way if things go wrong or if she gets hurt. But maybe it’s also fine if she doesn’t intervene. Nothing will go wrong, right? She continued eating her lunch and stayed quiet.

          “But right now, I want to do something for him,” JooHyun said. “I want to cook his breakfast for him.”

          Yoona choked and laughed, “What? Aren’t you a bad cook? You swore to yourself you’d never cook again!”

          “I-I just want to try… Maybe this time, things won’t go so bad! Can you help me? You’re a great cook!”

          “You really want to cook for him?”

          “Y-yes,” she nodded shyly. “I did nothing yesterday but look up some recipes and I think I got it down. Look at this,” she showed a recipe in her phone to Yoona. “You just have to help me.”

          “I will, I will,” Yoona smirked and snapped her fingers, sending all the needed ingredients in the fridge and cabinets. “Why don’t we start then, shall we?”

          “Oh, but I don’t think we have the ingredients yet.”

          “We already do,” Yoona said.

          “How do you know? You didn’t even check.”

          “We always have ingredients,” Yoona winked.

As JooHyun did all the cooking, Yoona only helped with the chopping. She wanted to know if JooHyun really had her cooking skills polished. There was one thing that she knew about JooHyun is that she does well with much practice. JooHyun was good at singing and good at playing piano and guitar all because of practice. She’s not even sure if music skills would even apply to cooking skills but both are somewhat similar. Oh well, she’ll just have to see.

          When the soup was done, JooHyun tasted it and nodded. “Mm… it tastes fine!”

          “Really?” Yoona took a spoonful and tried out her friend’s dish. When she sipped on the soup along with some meat and tofu, it was too bland that it was hard to swallow. When it finally went down, she coughed and didn’t look at JooHyun so that she wouldn’t get upset with all the horrible expressions she made. “Mm… it’s… good…”

          “Isn’t it?” JooHyun joyfully clasped her hand as her eyes sparkled.

          “Blech!! I have to fix this somehow. Dal-Hyang can’t eat this!” Yoona thought. Then an idea came to mind. “Oh, look at the time JooHyun! Shouldn’t you go there by now? You might be late at the orphanage!”

          “Oh my! I have to get ready, don’t I?”

          “Go and get ready,” Yoona said. “I’ll pack up your love dish for you.”

          “Thanks Yoona! You’re a life saver!” JooHyun then went to the bathroom to fix herself up. Yoona, on the other hand, added a bunch more ingredients in dish and mixed it all up quickly.

          “Wait a minute… this is my opportunity!” Yoona smirked. She sprinkled in some of her “love ingredients” in the soup and said with JooHyun’s face in mind, “At the bar, when you are on your break, you will see her, and your heart will be captivated.”

          She mixed it and giggled uncontrollably. Then she packed it away, ready to deliver to JooHyun’s love, Dal-Hyang.

***

          “Wake up sleepy head,” JooHyun caressed Dal-Hyang’s head, and his eyes fluttered open soon enough.

The mid-afternoon sun was shining through the window in his room. He always despised the sunshine since it would blind his eyes, but right now, the light was being blocked by JooHyun, causing a halo above her head.

          “What an angel…” he thought, still unconsciously falling for her even after they have broken up for years. He quickly brushed it off and sat upright, “You’re here…”

          “I cooked you some breakfast!”

          “Breakfast, huh?” he scoffed. “Like you can cook…” he scoffed and groggily walked to his bathroom and freshened up.

          “Hey! I happened to work hard on it, and Yoona said it was good!”

          “Seriously?”

          “Hey, just try it!”

JooHyun then prepared the dish on the dining table and Dal-Hyang soon sat to eat his breakfast. He picked up his spoon and started digging in. JooHyun just stared at him in anticipation.

As he ate, he didn’t realize he was not stopping because… it was just too delicious! It didn’t show in his expressions that he liked it or anything, but in his mind, he felt he was in heaven.

But then, he thought, how did JooHyun manage to cook something like this? The last time he remembered, she couldn’t even cook rice—even with a rice cooker!

          “So, how is it?” JooHyun asked, her eye-lashes fluttering.

          “Are you sure you cooked this?” Dal-Hyang eyed her in suspicion.

          “Yes! Of course I did. Yoona chopped up some of the vegetables, but I really did all the mixing! I cooked it!”

          Soon enough, he finished it and was famished. What a lovely breakfast. Usually, JooHyun would just buy something already prepared from some restaurant near his apartment. But if JooHyun was now this good at cooking, she should cook him his breakfasts more often. This dish totally woke him up well.

          “Oh, I have to go now!” JooHyun said. “Well then, Oppa! I’ll be going.”

          “Yeah.”

          “Glad you enjoyed your breakfast!”

          “How are you sure I enjoyed it?” he asked.

        “Well you usually barely finish your breakfast. And do you think I can’t read you? Don’t be silly,” JooHyun giggled and waved good-bye. “I’ll be going now! Take care tonight!”

          “Yeah.”

When JooHyun left, Dal-Hyang marched to his room and lay back on his messy bed. He picked up a notebook from his desk and started reading the lyrics he prepared for his night gig at Xiah Dragons Bar. Then he remembered his breakfast, still not getting over the fact about how good it was.

          “How did she cook that?” he wondered.

***

Dal-Hyang works at a pub called the Xiah Dragons. This pub had intricate dragon carvings all around the merlot walls. The lights coming from the red, Chinese lanterns are usually toned down low with only the exception of the bright stage lights at the end of the room. It opens in the afternoon and serves as a restaurant during the day. Most of the customers are business men, groups of friends, and couples. Families come rarely. When the clock strikes 6 PM, the bar opens and the live music starts.

Dal-Hyang specifically works around 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM and then later at 11:00 PM to 12:00 AM. He also works during the last hours of the bar which is 1:30 AM to 2:30 AM. His music usually focuses on quite depressing love songs, making some customers’ heartbreak scar even more, especially at such late hours. His style of music was honestly very useful to the bar since the alcohol tabs rise with those heart-wrenching songs of his. It’s definitely not healthy for the customers since most of them become really drunk, but at least Xiah Dragons earn more profit.

Dal-Hyang laid his guitar on the guitar stand and sat in front of the piano keyboard. He adjusted his microphone stand and started singing. Behind him was a teenager named Chanyeol, his trainee, a kid who works on basically almost all of the other instruments, including background vocals. He was also getting ready with his MacBook and his electric guitar.

Dal-Hyang started playing the piano and sang.

Without You – Jung YongHwa

My days without you aren’t that sad
I won’t hear any nagging even if I come home late from partying
It’s actually better without you

Chanyeol started the recorded beat and started playing his electric guitar softly.

My days without you aren’t pitiful at all
I can eat whatever I want, I don’t have to adjust to your tastes
It’s actually better without you

Really…
Not a single thing has changed
I’m really...
We didn’t even share a deep love
Without you, without you
I can’t even feel that you’re not here
I’m happy even without you

Just then, a customer came in and sat on the bar. “I’ll have a whiskey.” When she sat there, her eyes wandered around pub and eventually laid her eyes on Dal-Hyang with an eyebrow raised.

          “Is that…?”

My days without you, they’re not hard at all
There’s no need to go along with your whining or your mood
It’s actually better without you

Really…
Not a single thing has changed
I’m really…
We didn’t even share a deep love
Without you, without you
I can’t even feel that you’re not here
I’m happy even without you

Chanyeol did a little guitar solo and Dal-Hyang continued to sing.

When I remember you sometimes
I do shed tears without even knowing

Ooo… Yeah
But it’s still bearable
Really, I’m…
It’s still bearable

If you were here, if you were here
I think it’d be a little better
I wish you were here…

 I wish you were here

The clock soon struck 12 AM and it was time for Dal-Hyang to take a break after an hour of playing and switch with another artist. He marched to the bar and sat there, ordering a whiskey. As he was waiting for his drink, tapping away his fingers on the table, his eyes suddenly caught someone that looked familiar. There beside her sat a woman with long, flowing brown hair tied in a loose ponytail. She wore a black leather jacket and was drinking from a glass cup, the same kind of whiskey he ordered. But isn’t she…

          “JooHyun?” Dal-Hyang said in surprise. The woman, halfway from drinking in the glass, apathetically looked at him without even turning her head. She just eyed him and Dal-Hyang was a bit intimidated.

          The woman coolly laid down her cup and turned her head to face him. In English, she said, “What?” with a very seductive smile—or at least, it looked seductive.

          At that moment, Dal-Hyang’s stomach started churning. He felt sick for a moment but then his heart started pounding hard. It felt like it was about to burst. There was something triggering in his heart telling him that she was the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. She looked very similar to JooHyun but Dal-Hyang shook this thought off for this woman seemed aloof just like him was gorgeous with that dark biker-like leather jacket on—nothing like the innocent JooHyun with her bouncy bangs and flowery one-piece dresses.

          “U-um…” he felt his cheeks blushing and he quickly turned away, scratching the back of his head out of embarrassment.

          “What did you just call me?” the woman asked, this time in Korean.

          “S-sorry… I’ve mistaken you for someone else.”

          “Joo-Hyun, is it?” the woman said and took a last gulp at her whiskey.

          “Yeah.”

          Silence fell upon them and the woman slyly smirked. All this time, she was Scarlett, the parallel out loose to kill her own parallels. She has been living in this world for almost half a year now. It was not easy for she had to blend in within a society she had never seen or heard of before. She got rid of her old gothic clothes eventually and found a casual style she had interest in—of course, still with dark colors.

She has been trying hard to look for her parallel. When she saw Dal-Hyang, the parallel of her husband, Yakov, she knew this could finally be the starting point of her search. Now that Dal-Hyang accidentally mentioned Joo-Hyun, and she knew she was at the right path.

          “What’s your name?” she asked.

          “Huh? Oh… Dal-Hyang.”

          “Nice job on the music, Dal-Hyang-ssi. I like it.”

          “Ah… it’s nothing,” Dal-Hyang blushed. “What about you?” he asked. “What’s your name?”

          “Scarlett,” she said.

          “Huh?” Dal-Hyang looked at her in confusion with the English name.

          “It’s SeoHyun,” she said. “My name’s SeoHyun.”

Just then, JooHyun entered the bar in a pretty, little white dress topped off with a denim jacket. It was obvious to see that she dressed up for this event. Her bangs were perfectly combed tonight and her wavy hair cascaded to her shoulders. She was jittering a bit out of nervousness but was excited to admit her feelings. However, her excitement didn’t last long when he saw Dal-Hyang conversing with a woman, and seemingly enjoying it.

          “Let me tell you what, tabs on me,” JooHyun heard Dal-Hyang say to the woman. She frowned and was overcome with jealousy. Who was that girl? Was she his girlfriend or something? Hoping things would still go well as planned, JooHyun still managed to convince herself that the woman was nobody. Dal-Hyang never showed any interest on any girl these days so she shouldn’t think of anything about this woman yet.

The bar tender Key noticed JooHyun awkwardly standing there, staring directly towards Dal-Hyang’s direction. He smirked and nudged Dal-Hyang, “Your girl is here,” he said.

          “What girl?” Dal-Hyang scoffed and looked to where Key pointed. When he saw JooHyun, his eyes widened and immediately excused himself from Scarlett.

          “What brings you here?” he asked in a hushed tone.

          “I-I just wanted to visit you.”

          “Don’t you have work tomorrow? Why are you here?” he said, continuously glancing at Scarlett, hoping she wouldn’t have to see JooHyun. This was a move that totally said he wanted to be seen single. JooHyun read through him and felt a little hurt. He probably didn’t even take notice of how well she dressed tonight.

          “Can you take a walk with me for a while? You’re on your break after all.”

          He glanced one last time at Scarlett and sighed. He nodded and went along with JooHyun. As they were walking together, Dal-Hyang seemed to be smiling all by himself. He didn’t seem like the same, expressionless guy from the afternoon.

          “You seem happy tonight? Something happened?” JooHyun asked.

          “Well… yeah,” he shrugged. “I guess.”

          “What is it?”

        “There was this woman back at the pub… I think I’ve fallen in love at first sight,” he said with a big smile, upsetting JooHyun. Since they were both just close friends, Dal-Hyang didn’t seem to have any reason to hold this back from her. It did feel a little weird telling her this, though. All this years, he had JooHyun in his heart, but suddenly Scarlett was taking her place. He doesn’t know this but the magic Yoona had put in the dish a while ago, which was to captivate Dal-Hyang’s heart with the face Yoona thought of, mistakenly took Scarlett as JooHyun because they look almost exactly the same, cause I mean well, they are basically the same person but just from other worlds.

          “Oh… really?” JooHyun said solemnly. She was planning on confessing because she knew Dal-Hyang had no one in his heart. But now he does have someone in his heart, what should she do? Should she still confess her feelings? Her effort seemed futile now.

          “Why did you come here?” Dal-Hyang asked. “You still haven’t told me.”

          “Oh? Ah… I got this for you,” she took out a small, rectangular present from her bag and gave it to him. “It’s a birthday present. I forgot to give it to you last weekend so I thought I’d give it to you tonight.”

          “What is it? Should I open it now?”

          “Oh, no, that’s up to you. Anyway, I-I gotta go now,” she said, casually trying not to let him see her eyes which were starting to pool with tears.

          “Already?”

          “I promised Yoona I’d come back soon so… I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, trying to sound cheerful, but tears already started streaming down. She waved good-bye quickly and ran.

          Dal-Hyang was left there confused with a present on his hand. He went back to the pub and sat beside Scarlett once again.

          “Who was that?” she asked. “Is she your girlfriend, or perhaps a wife?”

          “Huh?! No, no… she’s just a friend!”

After a last drink, Scarlett stood up and said, “Well, I’m going. Nice meeting you, Dal-Hyang-ssi.”

          “Y-you too, SeoHyun-ssi… you’re gonna come back here, right?” Dal-Hyang asked.

          “Do you want me here?”

          “I’d… like to get to know you,” Dal-Hyang said, trying to be cool.

          “I’ll come back, then,” she smiled.