“Lets not do this ok?” Chun told.

Selina turned to look at Chun.

“If you’re angry that I made you quit you can pout and yell and throw a tantrum,” Chun told.

Selina listened as if being lectured by an adult who was a lot older than her.

“But I’m just afraid that with the time you spend over there you might get too attached and I’m just scared you won’t be able to pull yourself away,” Chun began, “I won’t hold you back forever because I want you to do the things you want too. So, can you think of it this way? Work with me for a month or so and if you really want to you can return to where you first started. Would that be alright?”

“Really?” Selina asked surprised, but with a lot of happiness in her voice.

She didn’t think that Chun would ever say that and to think she’d been moping over being forced to quit. Chun nodded a little disappointed at her reaction, but he didn’t let it show on his face.

“Then I have one question,” Selina said.

“What?” Chun questioned.

“Why do you make me sound childish? Where did throwing a tantrum and pouting come from?” Selina asked.

Chun looked at Selina blankly, “If you aren’t childish you wouldn’t ask that.”

Selina’s mouth dropped open, “Do you really mean that? Come on!”

Chun smiled, “Go to sleep early, we’re going to see fishes tomorrow.”

“Fishes?” Selina frowned to herself as Chun headed upstairs.

That next morning Selina followed Chun along the docks staring out at the water surrounding them. Her pony tail swung with the wind that was blowing at them.

“We’re seeing fishes here?” Selina questioned. “I thought you were taking me to the zoo or something.”

“Only kids do that,” Chun remarked. “We’re fishing today.”

“Fishing?” Selina repeated.

Chun nodded, “You ask a lot of questions.”

“I’ve only asked two questions,” Selina told. “Where are we going?”

Selina followed Chun straight ahead and stopped as she gazed at the miraculous huge white boat sitting on the waters.

“That thing?” Selina asked turning to Chun.

“Yes it’s that thing,” Chun replied.

Chun helped Selina onto the boat and showed her around. Heading back onto the deck Chun led Selina over to some fishing rods.

“Today our lunch depends on our luck,” Chun announced.

“Are we holding a ceremonial contest?” Selina randomly asked.

“You have to listen until I finish first contestant number 9,” Chun went on playing along with her, “anyway what I mean is if we don’t catch any fish then we don’t get to eat lunch. The person who catches less fish will have to cook and clean the fish.”

“And take their guts out,” Selina added.

“If they have guts,” Chun finished.

Selina reached for a rod and turned to Chun.

“So where are the baits?” Selina asked.

“Baits?” asked Chun then a sudden expression overcame his face. “Oh…I think I left them behind.”

“Then how are we going to fish?” Selina asked.

“We can try our luck by using just the hooks,” Chun told.

Half an hour later Chun and Selina found themselves sitting on the deck of the boat with their rods standing against the rails. The lines of the fishing rods had been floating somewhere in the water for a while already. All Selina could feel was the warm sun beaming down on her.

“Are you having a good time?” asked Chun.

“It’s nice. We haven’t been like this before,” Selina told.

“How are we?” Chun asked.

“We haven’t joked around like this. Before it was always some sort of tension or serious atmosphere, don’t you feel that the mood has changed now?” questioned Selina.

“Really?” Chun said. “I hope we can get closer.”

“This is as close as we can get,” Selina said.

Chun’s expression sort of dropped.

Selina continued, “2 feet away from each other.”

Selina said with a dorky smile as she measured the distance they were sitting from each other.

“Ah…geez,” Chun remarked.

Selina suddenly let out a yell and jumped up to her feet running over to her rod.

Something was pulling at it.

“I got a fish, I got a fish!” Selina yelped.

After another half hour of fiddling with the fish Selina watched Chun cut up the fish and cook it. When Chun finished cooking they ate luxuriously and played games chasing each other around the boat. Once the sun had dropped they finally got off the boat.

Selina let out a loud sigh as she stretched out her arms, “I’m so tired!”

Chun, who was walking beside her stopped to look at her.

“Does the little girl want a piggy back?” asked Chun.

“Not if you refer to me like that,” Selina said. “Forget it.”

“Fine, I was offering it for free,” Chun said getting back up.

As he did Selina jumped forward slapping her hands across his shoulders. Chun turned around and Selina bit her bottom lip playfully.

“But I didn’t say I didn’t accept it,” Selina said.

Once Selina had gotten onto Chun’s back and they were on their way toward his car they were finally quiet.

“Why did you want to go fishing today?” Selina suddenly asked.

“I was just thinking that if you didn’t know how to fish I’d teach you, but you always ruin things,” Chun said with sarcasm.

“My grandpa taught me,” Selina said comfortably leaning her head against his shoulder.

“Do you still cry over it?” Chun asked.

“Cry? My grandpa would be sad if I did, but in fact I feel a lot better now,” Selina told.

At that moment Selina was afraid to mention Jiro. She just wanted to say that because of both Jiro and Chun she was able to get through her grandfather’s death.

*_*_*_*_*_*

The weekend had ended early and Jiro found himself sitting inside his office first thing in the morning. There was a knock on the door and his secretary walked in.

“Here are some applicant forms that have just been turned in,” he said laying the papers in front of Jiro.

“Applicants? But we’re still full on employees,” Jiro stated.

“It appears someone resigned last week,” his secretary said.

“Is that so?” asked Jiro. “Ok  then.”

As his secretary walked out Jiro suddenly found himself feeling curious about who had resigned. Usually none of it mattered to him, but that morning he just felt like finding out. Searching through his binders Jiro finally landed on the section of his employees. Searching and searching again Jiro didn’t find Selina’s name. Frowning to himself Jiro got up and walked out. Standing in front of his door he searched around for Selina, but didn’t find her. Frowning he returned to his office and suddenly recalled a phone call from Selina that he’d ignored. Had something happened that he did not know about? What if she had called to ask for help, but he had ignored it? Suddenly grabbing his phone he searched for Selina’s number.

*_*_*_*_*_*

Selina had arrived early with Chun to his office that morning. Chun introduced her around and instead of having her sit around Chun brought her to her first meeting. As Chun and many other speakers went through some informative slides Selina jotted down notes watching attentively.

Selina had left her phone behind with her purse on her new desk as Chun had only instructed her to bring some papers and a pen with her. However, because Selina was at the meeting she was not able to answer the phone call from Jiro.

After the meeting ended Chun met up with Selina outside of the room.

“Are you hungry?” Chun asked.

Selina nodded.

“I’ll take you to the cafeteria,” Chun told.

During lunch Chun filled Selina in on some of the new upcoming projects they were doing for some private agencies. Chun had also told her that she’d be joining the creative writing team. After lunch Selina headed back up to her desk. Sitting on her chair Selina grabbed her cell phone to see that she had 10 missed calls. Surprised at the number of calls she’d received Selina checked to see who it was that called. A second later Selina found herself staring at Jiro’s name, but before she was able to go on wondering her phone started ringing again.

“Hello?” Selina slowly answered.

“Are you free tonight? I have something I want to talk about,” Jiro said.

“Tonight?” Selina repeated.

“I’ll meet you by the night market,” was all Jiro said then hung up.

Selina stared at her phone as if bewildered then pressed her lips together. After she’d gotten to Chun’s house Selina sat around watching TV for a bit. As the sun began to set Selina sat up and looked out of the window. Would Jiro be waiting? With just that thought Selina slipped on her shoes and headed out.

The streets were busy as usual, and so were the people occupying it. Sticking her hands into the pockets of her sweater Selina stopped when she came across a bench. Already she could see Jiro sitting waiting for her.

“Hey!” Selina shouted loudly as she jumped in front of Jiro.

Jiro stared up at her meekly and Selina laughed before sitting down.

“You look so cold,” Selina commented.

“You must be cozy then,” Jiro replied.

“In fact I am,” Selina told. “So why’d you suddenly ask me out?”

“Are you interested in doing something else?” Jiro asked.

“I don’t know,” Selina replied confused.

“Did you find a new job?” Jiro asked.

Selina didn’t respond.

“Why’d you suddenly quit?” Jiro questioned. “Did something happen?”

Selina stared at Jiro then asked, “Why are you so worried? Nothing happened, I’m fine, see? Geez, you’re so strange. Angry all of a sudden then worried the next, so moody.”

“I’m not,” Jiro retorted.

“That’s what moody is,” Selina replied. “When emotions suddenly turn on and off.”

“I know what it is ok?” Jiro told.        

Selina smiled and leaned back, “Is that all?”

“You weren’t like…angry were you?” Jiro asked.

“Why would I be angry?” Selina asked.

Jiro smiled at her then turned away suddenly getting up.

“Why do you make things so unclear?” Selina asked.

“Do you want to get something warm?” Jiro suggested changing the topic.  

A few minutes later they were walking side by side taking interest in the side stalls. After getting some snacks and walking down the sidewalk they suddenly stopped recognizing Ella heading toward them. Ella also stopped with a surprised expression on her face.

“Hi guys!” Ella greeted happily.

Selina waved at her.

“What’s this? You’re out late.” asked Jiro.

“I needed some air,” Ella explained.

Jiro’s expression turned into a worried frown. It gave Selina an uncomfortable feeling as she wondered if Jiro still had feelings leftover for Ella.

“So I guess I should leave now I’m starting to feel tired,” Ella said.

Before she walked passed Jiro said, “Lets go together. Selina was about to leave.”

Selina turned to look at Jiro surprised. Leave? Since when? Selina turned to look at Ella who was glancing at her.

Feeling a little disappointed with Jiro’s lie Selina played along, “I was about to go back. You two have a good time.”

“It would be nice to spend some time with you,” Ella told. “Call me sometime then ok?”

Selina nodded and glanced at Jiro who seemed to be looking away. Turning around Selina made her way down the sidewalk.

“So, is there something you’d like to share?” Ella asked temptingly.

*_*_*_*_*_*

Instead of taking the short way to Chun’s house Selina walked around buildings for a while then came to a stop. She sat wearily on the steps of a random building.

“Suddenly asking me out then trying to ditch me, what the heck,” Selina mumbled to herself.

Did Jiro still have feelings for Ella that Selina wasn’t aware of? But then why would that matter to her? Selina shook her head.

“So stupid, everything’s so stupid,” Selina mumbled to herself.

Selina let out a failing sigh. She was only in a bad mood. Was it because Jiro had suddenly lied?

*_*_*_*_*_*

“No, not at all,” Jiro replied.

They were now sitting by a bench in front of a noodle stall.

“Do you want ice cream?” Ella asked.

“No,” Jiro replied.

“Do you like Selina?” asked Ella.

Jiro didn’t respond. Ella laughed.

“You’re so fun,” Ella teased. “Do you want to tell me? Or should I tell you?”

“Tell what?” Jiro asked.

“Chun obviously likes Selina,” Ella said without hesitation.

“He does?” Jiro gulped.

“You tell me,” Ella went on. “Jiro during all these years haven’t you noticed anything about me?”

“You’re arrogant, but easy going. You’re not shy, you don’t like to make things hard, you’re smart, funny, cute, and too nice,” Jiro said counting his fingers as he listed each one.

“Yes, they’re all true, anything else?” Ella asked.

“I can’t think of any,” Jiro said.

“I’m a good observer,” Ella told. “The expressions from Selina and Chun’s face and things I’ve learned after we all went to the hut tells me that Selina isn’t your girlfriend. And the reason to why Chun would let her stay at his house would be a personal reason right?”

Jiro didn’t say anything.

“Don’t say anything about being sorry,” Ella said. “Selina told me your obvious intentions.”

“You would’ve walked her home if she was your girlfriend, but you stayed with your friend,” Ella pointed out. “You’re bad at lying you know?”

“You don’t have to tell me that,” Jiro said. “My plans always backfire on me.”

Ella laughed, “I wonder what Selina must be feeling right now.”

“Stop it. You trying to make me feel guilty won’t work,” Jiro told.

“So Chun’s your competition this time around huh?” Ella asked.

“What do you me this time around? He was never my competition the first time,” Jiro told. “Can you stop exaggerating?”

“I’m telling you for your own good if you don’t stop caring so much you’re going to be disappointed real soon,” Ella told.

Jiro remained silent and stared at the ground. The wind whistled passed them as people scurried off toward their homes before the night would get colder.

“I’m not disappointed with you, nor Chun, or Selina. I’m sad though…that things are this way,” Ella told. “Things are the way they are…”

***

The door opened and Chun quickly turned from where he was standing.

“Where’d you go?” he asked.

Selina held up a bag.

“I was thirsty for some juice,” Selina replied.

Chun watched as Selina gulped a cup of juice down and turned. Noticing that she was being watched Selina smiled foolishly and wiped the drop of juice that was running down the side of her lip.

“Good night,” Selina said and walked up the stairs.

Chun watched her go up and went over to sit on the couch. Selina seemed flustered with something. Just by looking at her he could see it written over her expression. He hoped Selina was not hiding anything from him. But eventually…she would have to tell him everything soon anyway.