III. Naivety at its finest

 

Kai was not having the best day.

It has been two weeks since Krystal last talked to him or sent him a message. He’s had issues with the F(x) member before but it didn’t come to the extent that she would completely ignore him. Moreover, if he had recently done nothing wrong at all. So why was she avoiding him? Or was it that he did something wrong and just didn’t know about it? Girls do things like that. Even if Krystal was a superstar, she’s still a normal girl who’s innately complicated. He might have done something wrong that he knew nothing about and that resulted for her ignorance.

Argh, this is driving me crazy!

Kai irately screamed in his mind.

Just as when he and the EXO members went out of SM-Entertainment after a brief meeting for their upcoming schedules for the rest of the year, it was as if the gods finally heard his prayers, and they all saw the girls of F(x) just arriving at the agency. There was Victoria, Amber, Luna… and then Krystal.

Automatically, the guys politely greeted them and the girls greeted back with a respectful bow. When Kai had a brief, solid eye-to-eye contact with his “girlfriend”, Krystal greeted him so casually as if nothing was ever going on between them. As if they were back to square one and that Kai never knew anything about Krystal but being a star of the F(x) girl band.

The girls had gotten into the elevator as Kai trailed Krystal with his eyes. Even in person, she was resolved to ignoring him? What in the world? Just why? Is there something he didn’t know about? Last time he checked, President Lee Soo-man approved of their relationship and was completely happy that they had developed feelings for one another. Their managers weren’t opposed to the romantic relationship also so they continued dating since the start of the year. They talked about their issues with the fans and decided to not let the negative comments affect them because of their “True” feelings for each other.

Then why in the world was she ignoring him?

Not noticing that he’d been standing on his grounds for almost a minute, he felt a supportive arm snake atop his shoulder. It was Chanyeol. “Let’s go, Kai. They must be busy too, they’re having a Japan tour soon, right? Don’t think about it too much.”

Kai just nodded. Maybe she was just as busy as he was too.

Thus, he decided not to trouble himself with it. He carried on with their hectic schedules and accomplished as much as he could. He went to several photo shoots with the members and touched down back at SM-Ent for a two-hour afternoon practice for tomorrow night since he’d be doing a live guesting with EXO in one of the popular TV shows. It had been a stressful and tiring day, but their managers were kind enough to dismiss them early. They’ve all been working so hard since early morning so it was just fair to give them a reasonable amount of rest after their tiresome schedules.

So, having the rest of the night to do whatever he wanted, he went out for a drive all by himself. He made a quick tour around some parts of Seoul, but in the end, it only led him to arrive at that one place. He again found himself at Rainbow Park.

Few to no people visited the park at this hour so Kai didn’t have to worry about the fans spotting him in such a public place. Actually, he preferred that no one would visit the park whenever he wanted to spend time there and reflect on his existence.

Though, today… he had seen that girl again. The girl who just danced along with the Sweet Little Bumblebee tune yesterday. But she was already on her way to leave. From where he was parked, he couldn’t help but watch her and chuckle upon remembering the way she just danced. It was cute honestly…

But something seemed wrong. She was struggling to setup her car. He continued watching a little more and then saw her trying to fix the whole thing, but it was obvious she didn’t know what she was doing. Being a concerned citizen he was (or he just wanted to talk to the Sweet Little Bumblebee dancer), he went out of his car and approached her.

“Excuse me…” he called out.

“Don’t do this to me, Anastasia~ pleaaaaase. You know I love you so much!”

He heard her whine. Anastasia? He thought to himself. Did she mean the car?

The girl was so engrossed on trying to fix the car that she still hadn’t noticed him. To gain her attention, he cleared his throat and spoke more firmly. “Excuse me, do you need any help?” he asked.

The girl jump and shrieked. “Oh my, you startled me. Is there anything you need?” she politely asked.

Kai couldn’t help but chuckle again, “Miss, I was the one who just asked if you needed help. You seem to be in a middle of a crisis.” There was a black charcoal spot on the tip of her nose and her surprised doe-like eyes just widened upon having a good look at him. He wasn’t worried if she was an avid fan or anything since she was just all alone. It’d be red alert if he were to deal with a mob.

“Really? Are you a mechanic?!” she excitedly asked. “Thank God, I’m saved. You can help me fix Anastasia?”

Kai blinked several times. Did this girl… just think that he was… a mechanic?

A mechanic…?

Kai, the face of  EXO, and the so-called “Dancing King”, looked like a mechanic? No offense to mechanics but… he had never thought he gave that first impression. So in conclusion, this girl was definitely not a fan.

“Ah, mian. I’m not a mechanic.” Kai embarrassedly replied. “I just saw you and I thought you needed help. Does your engine not start?”

The girl sighed exhaustedly, “Yeah. I don’t know what happened. I was just driving her fine earlier but it suddenly won’t start right now.”

“Well, I’m sure I can’t do anything about fixing it right now… but I can at least give you a ride home.” Kai kindly offered, “Do you live nearby?”

“Yeah, it’s just a five-minute drive from here.” She replied but then raised both her hands while shaking her head, “But you don’t need to give me a ride home. I’ll be fine.”

“I insist.” Kai said, “The streets here are dark and my conscience can’t probably take it if something happened to a pretty girl like you because I didn’t offer you a ride home.”

For a moment, he saw a faint blush forming on the girl’s cheeks. He was just speaking honestly. She was prettier than he expected. Doe-like eyes, porcelain face, high cheek-bones, long eyelashes, slender figure… he could’ve mistaken her as a member of a K-POP idol group if he hadn’t memorized the faces of the girl bands from SM-Ent.

“Miss, I wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Kai said, reading hesitation all over her face. He flashed her one of his charming smiles, and he hoped that his said charming traits would work on her.

“Oh… thank you so much. I’m really sorry for the trouble.” She shyly said and gave him a polite bow.

“Just thank me when you safely get back home, okay?” Kai said.

.

.

.

The man looked decent. He wasn’t the type to take advantage of girls like her, and God please forbid, she never knew anything about self-defense. But for now, her worries if she could completely trust the man was overthrown by the wrath of her sister when she gets to read the message she sent concerning Anastasia’s condition. Her phone alerted, and Meira responded in less than ten seconds.

It only said:

집.

지금.   Translation: Home. Now.   Mi Ryung silently prayed hard. God, please give me another day to live. Unleash the kindness in my sister’s heart and let her forgive me.  

“Which way do I turn?” the man suddenly asked.

She was brought back to her senses by his masculine voice. “This way, please.” She pointed to the left and then he turned his car.

Mi Ryung secretly stole a glance at the man every now and then. He looked so handsome. Cute Korean eyes, pouty lips, sharp jawline, bronze skin color…