2

                                                “The wind won’t lift you, until you lift yourself.” –Rachel Ardens

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“The movie was fantastic, wasn’t it?”

Bobby said enthusiastically as we three walked out of the cinema. The street seemed to be busy, since it was a Friday night.

“Yeah, it was… If we watched the movie Jinhwan suggested, I guess we would have dozed off!” Yunhyeong playfully teased and they both laughed together.

I wasn’t bothered to focus on them; I was too attentive on the orange colored leaves, flying away as the cold night wind carried them to God would know where.

I was too taken away by the leaves; I didn’t realize that they were calling me for a few times.

Bobby snapped in front of my face, waking me up from the deep concentracy.

I blinked and finally stood on the ground of reality.

“What were you looking at?” Bobby furrowed his eyebrows as they both were looking at me, confused.

I shook my head and smirked. “Nothing,” I said simply.

Yunhyeong pursed his lips.

“Let’s go to the clothing shop across the street!” He pointed towards the clothing shop opposite the cinema. Bobby and I turned our heads to look at it.

We both nodded in agreement. “Yeah, let’s go,” I smiled.

-

I was walking at the flannels section to check them out and accidentally bumped into someone.

A novel fell to the ground and it quickly alerted me.

“Sorry!” A familiar female voice exclaimed as we both knelt down to pick up the novel.

We both looked at each other, and just at that moment, I lost my words.

“Hi, Jinhwan!” Inara said as she pulled the strands of her locks to the back of her pierced ear, grinning.

My cheeks flushed instantly. “Hey,” I smiled as I handed her the novel I lent her, and she took it back gently.

“Sorry for not walking carefully,” She smiled apologetically as we both stood up. I shook my head aggressively and grinned. “It’s fine, really,” I said to make her feel better. She nodded and pursed her lips.

I poked my head to look around, making her confused as she raised her eyebrow and also looked around; following me.

“Who are you with?” I asked as I could not see anyone who was looking for her or anything. Who knew if she was with her boyfriend, which was the last thing I would want to be true.

“I’m with the girls,” She pointed towards the women’s clothing section. My eyes followed her finger and saw the group of girls she was with at the library; checking out dresses. “They’re trying on some dresses for the senior prom,” She exclaimed.

‘Thank God,’ My heart whispered.

I nodded. “Why aren’t you joining them?” I asked.

“I’m not in the mood, I guess,” She chuckled. “Plus, I can hardly take my hands off this novel,” She lifted the novel and smiled.

My eyes were moved from her to the boys; who were checking out the sweaters.

“Wanna have some coffee? Starbucks is just around the corner,” I raised my eyebrow and smiled in hopes that she would accept my offer.

Her face beamed and she grinned. “Sure!”

-

We both walked out from Starbucks with grande cups of green tea latte in our hands. We both liked green tea latte too, surprisingly.

I saw a bench at the park beside Starbucks’ block and decided that it would be a nice place for us to have a small talk.

I pointed towards the bench.

“Hey, let’s sit there!” I said and she followed my finger. She nodded in agreement. “Yeah, let us!” She smiled and we both walked towards the park.

The park was quiet, but full of couples walking around it. The trees were decorated with strings of white lights; and the pond was filled with kois and blooming lotuses; so homely that an Asianese style park could be found in the States. However, it was a peaceful and nice place to hangout, for me.

We both settled down on the bench. She put the novel in her handbag and took a sip of the warm green tea latte.

She shrugged her shoulders in satisfaction as she placed the cup on her lap.

“Having a warm green tea latte on a cold night is a definition of heavenly,” She took a deep breath as she closed her eyes and smiled.

I looked at her; admiring her beauty for the gazillionth time and nodded.

“It is,” I smiled.

She opened her eyes back and turned to look at me.

“Jinhwan, why do you love the novel so much?” She fluttered her eyelashes as she asked, making me smile instantly.

I raised my eyebrow and took a deep breath.

“Hm… Because it is just simply flawless? The words are beautifully arranged, and they’re easy to understand, despite the deep meaning behind them,” I said as I took a sip of my green tea latte. She tilted her head to the left and looked up to the starry night sky.

“Well… to me…,” She slowly said. I focused on her to listen to her next words but she was quiet for a longer while, so I asked.

“To you?”

She smiled and turned her head to look at me.

“To me, the novel is somehow mysterious; judging by the storyline. But despite that, the message is so clear and meaningful, it gives a new breath to life,” She said as she looked down; her brown colored boots playfully caressed the ground.

And at that moment, I knew that I liked her.

“Why does it?” I asked as I looked at her. She looked at me back and smiled.

She quoted a sentence from the novel.

“The wind won’t lift you, until you lift yourself,” She said.

“The part where Isabel almost gave up on her life before Nikolas told her that,” I responded and she grinned.

“That’s my favorite part of the novel! And when they started flying paper planes… that was just the sweetest,” She exclaimed beamingly. “I’ve read it before but, once is never enough,” She took another sip of her green tea latte.

“I know, right,” I nodded in agreement and smiled.

We were quiet for awhile; watching the bustling street, listening to the roaring engines of the cars, watching the stars on the peaceful, cloudless night sky, until there was a sound coming from a phone.

Inara took her phone out of her soft pink colored handbag and unlocked it.

“Hey, Jinhwan. MacKenzi texted me that they’re going home,” She said and sounded upset yet apologetic.

My heart sank a little for the fact that we had to part, but I covered it with a smile on my face.

“It’s getting late, isn’t it? Let me walk you to them,” I offered and she smiled as she nodded.

-

We arrived in front of the black Mercedes, parked in front of a flower shop which was a few blocks away from the clothing shop, where we met. The girls were already in the car, waiting for Inara so they could pull off.

“Eventhough we had a short time, I enjoyed it,” Inara smiled sheepishly as she said those unexpectant words.

“I did too,” I smiled. My cheeks felt hot as I looked at her.

“See you, Jinhwan,” She leaned closer to hug me.

My body froze as I felt the warmth of her body on mine. However, I wrapped my arms around her too.

We let go and she was already turning her body away from me, but I grabbed her arm and she turned back to look at me.

“Can I have your number?” I asked as I let go of her arm and handed her my phone. She smiled and I noticed that her cheeks were somehow turning pink; or maybe it was just my imagination.

“Sure,” She smiled and took my phone.

When she had finished saving her number into my contacts’ list, she handed the phone back to me.

“Thanks,” I smiled and she nodded and smiled back.

“See you later,” She said as she was opening the back door of the car.

As the car pulled away, she waved towards me from inside of the car and I responded with a wave back.

I watched the car drive away until I was sure that I couldn’t see it anymore.

As I stood there with hands in the pockets of my sweater; freezing from the cold wind, a pair of hands grabbed me by my shoulders.

I turned to look at who it was, but it turned out to be two people.

“Where were you? Did you know that we were looking for you everywhere?!” Bobby asked worriedly. Yunhyeong furrowed his eyebrows.

“I was just out for a drink,” I said softly. “I’m sorry,” I looked down and they both sighed.

“My dad’s worried. It’s like 11 now. Let’s go home,” Yunhyeong said and I nodded.

“I’m sorry, guys. You could have left me. I could have taken the cab if you guys really wanted to go home,” I said as we were walking towards Bobby’s yellow Chevy.

“Don’t be crazy. We’re not leaving our friend behind,” Bobby wrapped his arm around my shoulder and playfully tucked me onto his shoulder. I smiled and was relieved that they weren’t that mad.

Yunhyeong who was watching us also smiled. “Yeah,” He said.

-

“Bye guys! Thanks!” I said as I waved towards Bobby’s car.

They both waved back and pulled away from my house.

I slowly unlocked the front door and walked carefully inside. The house was dark, and I was pretty sure that my parents were both asleep, so I walked upstairs to my room.

I closed the door of my bedroom and quickly lay on my unmade bed. I took out my phone from the pocket of my jeans.

I looked at the recently saved phone number.

Inara saved her name as ‘Inara W.’

I caressed the screen of my phone and without even realizing it, I accidentally called her.

The next thing I knew, her voice was on the other line.

“Hello?” Her angellic voice said and I couldn’t just end the call, hence I decided to just talk to her.

“Hey, it’s me, Jinhwan,” I chuckled nervously.

“Hey, Jinhwan! Are you home?” She asked. She didn’t sound sleepy or anything, so I guess I wasn’t really disturbing her.

“Yeah I am, and are you?” I asked back.

“I am,” She answered.

“You weren’t sleeping, were you?” I just had to assure that, or else I would be guilty.

She chuckled on the other line.

“Nope, and I’m still not. Only one chapter left until I finish this novel for the fifth time,” She replied. My mind was taken away by the memory of seeing her reading the novel at the library the first time we met.

“Good luck on not crying for the takeoff of Nikolas,” I teased and she laughed.

“I’ll take that advice real seriously,” She joked back and we both laughed.

“Go on with your reading. I gotta wash up for slumber,” I said after a few seconds of silence.

“Yeah. Have a good sleep, Jinhwan,” She told and I nodded and smiled.

“I’ll take that advice real seriously,” I quoted her deliberately, making her chuckle on the other line.

“Good night, Jinhwan,” She said.

“Good night, Inara,” I replied and the call was ended, but her good night wish was still echoing in the mind of mine; accompanying me until I drifted off to dreamland.

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A/N: okay so i shall be posting the third chapter once i hit like a few subscribers, okay? please support me x -mrs kim