Chapter 6

Chaerin wait patiently at the back alley.

It’s almost time for Jiyong to take out the garbage and kill himself… with smoking.

And as she predicted, he came out only to walk pass her like she is invisible. Chaerin frowns.

“That’s rude. Hey, I just need to talk for a bit”

Jiyong continue his errand and ignore her. Again passing her like she is not there.

“Hey”

She grabs his shirt and he quickly shoves her hand away.

“Yah, Kwon Jiyong! You owe me an explanation”

“I’m busy”

He said sternly and enter back into their premise.

“What the ?”

Chaerin stood there bewildered for a moment before her face turn red over his behavior. With full determination on her face, she walks angrily to the Kwons restaurant.

“Yah! Kwon Jiyong! I said I need to speak to you for a bit, don’t be such a pain in the !”

All heads turn towards her and it became awkwardly still. It is only then that Chaerin realize that she is disrupting the Kwons. Chaerin is causing a scene and her face turn red again and not because of the earlier reason. She blows her bangs. She saw Jiyong, his parents and few of their senior workers sitting in a meeting like arrangement are discussing something that seems so serious.

Jiyong is staring at her.

“I said, I’m busy”

Chaerin froze in her state unable to contain her embarrassment. Not even able to move or say sorry. Mr Kwon shift his attention to Jiyong and Chaerin.

“Nevermind son, go and discuss whatever it is with Chaerin first”

Mrs Kwon smile at Chaerin to ease her heart while Jiyong sharpen his stare at her with full annoyance.

“I’m sorry”

Chaerin bow repeatedly and as Jiyong come closer he grab her wrist tightly and lead her to the back alley.

“What?”

Jiyong and toss her lightly to his front. Chaerin gulps and looks everywhere but Jiyong. He cross his arm.

“Hey are you going to start talking or you want to admire the stars in the night sky?”

Startled, Chaerin scratches the back of her head suddenly lost of words. Jiyong watch her in amusement, but his face remains the same. This is the first time he saw Chaerin being timid in front of him.

“I’m sorry I barged in like a mad woman… but.. That’s because you were being an , I mean rude so I thought…”

”Hey hey hey, cut the crap and let’s get straight to the things you want to talk about”

Chaerin hissed. His behavior is starting to piss her off.

“Can you just lower down your rude attitude and just talk normally like how you would talk to your parents?”

Ahh there is the attitude that Jiyong is familiar with. Chaerin snap in a swift seconds just as how Jiyong had expected.

“Are you my mom?”

Chaerin sigh and roll her eyes.

“So? Are you going to keep me asking you the same question?”

“About yesterday”

Chaerin’s tone become softer.

“What about it?”

Chaerin tries to be patient and look into Jiyong’s eyes but the intensity in his look drove her eyes away.

“Why did you fought with my boyfriend?”

This tense conversation got to Chaerin real good.

“You mean after what you saw yesterday you still think of him as your boyfriend? Are you stupid?”

Jiyong suddenly feel a rising rage of emotion as Chaerin refer to Jimin as her boyfriend just now.

“Please don’t make this hard, just tell me, that’s all, is that so hard to do?”

“Why do you care?”

Chaerin is taken aback by his question. Does she even need to explain it?

“Are you serious?”

“As far as I am concern, Jimin should be your EX and I’m not your FRIEND, so why do you even need to know? What? Will it change anything? Will it bring Jimin back to you?”

Jiyong put emphasize to the words and the intensity just got higher. She swallows the lump in while her emotions start to stir.

“Be-because..”

“Because what? Do you know that that’s the least of my concern now? Do you know that I am suspended from nationals? And it’s all because I, Kwon Jiyong, the idiot suddenly feels like it’s my job to straighten the out of him in the locker room!”

Jiyong move closer to Chaerin and she feels his rage, his over piling emotions right now.

“No, Jiyong, the nationals…”

“Yes! No more nationals for me. Are you satisfied now? This is all because of you”

“Me? What did I do?”

Chaerin seriously wants to know why she is suddenly in fault with what happened yesterday.

“Because you’re so pitiful and that’s why”

“Excuse me?”

“Yes, it’s because you are so damn pathetic and it cost me the nationals!”

Jiyong doesn’t care of her flickering eyes.

“Jiyong, listen.. I help you…”

He cuts her off again.

“Help? Help? You wanna help?! You know what you can do? Stop being so stupid and learn how to assess your relationship so that men wont cheat on you again next time!”

By now, Jiyong is just one step away from Chaerin, talking loudly to her face and when he realized, it’s just a little too late.

“I hate you”

Chaerin utter while trying not to cry in front of him. She shoves him away while she enters into the Lee’s restaurant. Jiyong watch her leave in regret. Words have been spoken and now there’s nothing he can do to take that back.

“!”

He yelled as he kicks the air and brushes his finger through his hair roughly. This probably is the worst day of his life. His mood is all over the places since he knew about his family involvement with something that is dangerous. To make matters worse, he feels like he have successfully burn the bridge that he has with Chaerin. Between the former and the latter, the latter hurts more.

**************************

Jiyong can’t seem to focus while eating his breakfast. He recalls the phone call he received this morning stated that his punishment have been lift off and that he is called to Mr Han’s office after lunch hour.

“Why do I have a feeling that you seems not excited knowing you’ll be competing again?”

Mrs Kwon look at him puzzled.

“Or is it because mom served us English breakfast and not the usual you always eat?”

Mr Kwon convey mostly for himself as he is not that fond of this kind of breakfast. His wife rolls her eyes on him.

“No, no.. it’s good. But I’m just surprised because last time I met Mr Han, boy, he was very certain that I’m gonna be off national, but now he changed his mind”

“Then, you should thank the lord because there must be something good that you have done to deserve this”

Jiyong sips his coffee. Good? He remembers last night when he made Chaerin choke. Unknowingly he let out a really heavy sigh.

“Wow, you really looked trouble, should we be worried?”

“It’s not that dad, I just think it’s a little bit weird that’s all”

“Or probably someone talked to Mr Han”

His father said while munching on his waffle.

“Probably..”

“But Kwon Jiyong, I want you to promise me, that no more fights will occur this time around!”

Jiyong exchange glances with his father over his mom warning.

“Yes ma’am”

“I want you to say it like you mean it”

“Jesus mom, yes, I promise”

Mrs Kwon smile, satisfied with his answer.

“Now, what’s the deal with Chaerin last night? She sounded so pissed”

Before he has the chance to reply his father, Mrs Kwon chimes in.

“Yeah, what did you do to her? You need to treat her like the lady she is son”

“Mom~~”

“Hey young man, you will never get a wife with the way you treat a lady. You should treat them nicely, respectfully… and the way you treat Chaerin, no wonder she is pissed with you”

Jiyong rolls his eyes over his mom nagging and ended up getting a smack when she catches him doing that.

“Mom, you should give the same advice to Chaerin too. She is way too rough to handle, no wonder she joins taekwando. Guys would think a thousand times before they want to talk to her. And if she’s not in her uniform, she only wears jeans, I never saw her actually dressing up herself, like she look pretty decent but it’s like she doesn’t put much effort into herself. It feels as if she has let go of herself after she got together with that stupid boy. Okay, I admit she has a decent smile added by that smiling eyes she has but oh no… don’t be fool by it, because she has a sharp toungue and she’s not afraid of letting people know what she thinks. Remember last night? The way she barged into our restaurant like nobody’s business?”

Mr and Mrs Kwon nod, listening with much interest.

“And also…”

Both his parents watch him with amusement as he continues on talking about Chaerin.

“Also, she always blows her bangs when she gets nervous, she can’t hide her expression. People know immediately whether she like something or not. Yeah okay, she’s smart and witty, I’ve heard you guys exchange opinion with our political and environment issue before. But whenever we spoke to each other? All of that seems to be washed down the drain. She never show that side to me, so why should I treat her nicely? And that , because I like Mr Lee, I respect him a lot. We watch football and I hang out with him you know, no offence dad”

Mr Kwon raise his hand and gesture him to proceed.

“But every time I ‘m at their place, she’ll purposely walk away or sitting in some corner somewhere face