Myung Soo (Part 2): Experience
Paris: The City of My Heart
A/N: I tagged some pictures for your favour - these places do exist in Paris.
1 Franprix: French convenience store, equivalent to Seven Eleven, Woolworths, etc.
2 Maman: Mother / Mum.
3 On y va!: Let’s go!
I dragged my feet back to the door I had just walked away from and pressed the doorbell. I kept my cool and smiled charmingly when she opened the door.
I somehow managed to convince her to let me stay temporarily at her place. Was it my offer of sharing the rent fee with her and an addition to that? I didn’t know and I wasn’t really curious either, as long as she lets me stay and we stay out of each other’s way. She seemed harmless to me, therefore I wasn’t worried of her finding out my identity. Still, I reminded myself to be vigilant at all times.
After she closed the windows next to the balcony doors, she went to the linen cupboard in the bathroom to get me an extra blanket. She then went over to her luggage to find some things for me to wear. How nice of her. She took out a spare towel, an oversized T-shirt, and a pair of grey tracksuit pants. I cocked an eyebrow at the last piece of clothing. The waist band was stretchable so that wouldn’t be a problem, but the length would be too short for me. She looked up at me, grinning in glee as she knew this fact.
“It’s better than nothing,” she said nonchalantly, suppressing a laugh.
I sighed. “Thanks.”
I noticed her snickering at her spot. I didn’t like being teased by her like that, I liked to keep my cool, but I sort of liked how she was getting comfortable around me, though I knew I had not gained her trust yet.
I entered the clean bathroom constructed with dark blue tiles and white walls. I observed the room. An electric toothbrush, Colgate toothpaste, and a retainer container sat near the sink. A white towel rested idly on the railings next to the shower cubicle.
An enticing image of her wrapping her wet slender body in the towel came to my mind. I felt a sudden increase in my body temperature, as if I had just spent a good hour of working out at the gym, when the image of how her bare body would look like also came—
I stopped the train of thoughts railing as soon as they came to mind.
It was something I had not experienced before. Had I always been so negative that I had never seen anyone positively until now?
I had never felt attracted to anyone emotionally… or physically.
Was it the influence of hormones on a normal young adult male?
~✡~✡~
As I just slid the T-Shirt on me, I heard a croaky voice from outside. It seemed to have come from a speaker.
“Hello, dear sister.”
Then, I heard my flatmate saying in a teasing tone, “Hi, Dino!”
That was a new side of her.
I looked around for a toothbrush and realised that I wasn’t at my place. Hmm… might get some from Franprix1 around here. Also, I would have to get my stuffs from my rented unit tomorrow without getting caught, otherwise I would be left with nothing. I didn’t want to use the money I saved from working just to get clothes that I could have got back.
I exited the bathroom, my hand drying my hair with the towel. I saw Amber in front of her laptop, staring wide-eyed at her chat partner. I was wondering who he was when the guy started talking.
“Geez, you’re so slow, sis. Serena’s my girlfriend.”
I heard her groan as I strode to the couch, where she had put what would be my blanket during my stay here.
“Remind me, what number is she again?” I heard her ask.
I plopped myself on the sofa and took out my phone from my shoulder bag.
“Three hundred—“
“Shut up!” she yelled at him in mock annoyance. “You never had that much.”
With the way they were interacting with each other, they seemed really close.
Loud laughter from the speaker echoed in the unit. “At least I’m not forever-single like you.”
“I’m fine the way I am,” she retorted exasperatedly. “I don’t need any man around.”
Now, that got my attention. She seemed to notice me because I saw her turning, but then she went back immediately to her laptop screen.
“Are you a lesbian?” I heard the guy asked, gaining a silent laughter from me.
“I’m not a lesbian!” she snapped, eyes widening in disbelief. “Just because I never had a boyfriend doesn’t mean I’m a lesbian!”
“Just chill, sis! I’m just saying if you keep being so standoffish, you’ll end up a forty-year-old !”
I saw her flinched at the guy’s words. I had to put my hand over my lips to prevent the laughter from escaping. She shot me a look and I shifted my eyes back down innocently to my phone screen.
“Oi! Where are you looking at?” the guy called her.
“Actually, bro, there’s something I should tell you.” A hint of mischief was in her voice.
“What? You met a hot Parisian and now you’re living with him?” he said sarcastically.
She turned to me with a smile I could not describe. I raised an eyebrow with what-the-hell-have-you-got-under-your-sleeve look. She turned her laptop towards me and said, “See that, bro? That’s my roommate! So… I gotta go off now ‘coz we have some business to do.”
"What the , Amber?! You took a Parisian in to live with you?! Are you out of your mind?!” Several questions came out from the guy and I could so understand why. Your sister went off to another country and lived with a guy? I presumed Sung Yeol and I would be sort of worried too for Hyun Ah.
She rotated her laptop back to her and waved her hand at him. “Bye.”
“No! Amber! Don’t hang up! I’ll tell Mum and Dad!” the guy threatened in panic.
So, he actually is her brother.
She sneered in triumph, “I’d like to see if they’d believe you.”
“Amber! No! Don’t—“
And the call ended.
I didn't let the silence linger and queried, “What was that?”
She turned to me and replied matter-of-factly, “Well, since you’re living at my place, I just used you for a bit there to get back at my brother.”
I chortled. She was full of surprises. She seemed like those innocent little church girl, but then she could also be playful when she wanted to.
“So, your name’s Amber?”
She didn’t reply, but she turned towards me. “Are you going to tell me your name?”
I feigned a thinking expression. “Hmm… should I? Or should we go on we-don’t-tell-names mode?”
She gave me a piercing stare. Her indifference had disappeared suddenly and something else took its place: annoyance. “You know my name already.”
The truth was, Amber looked pretty cute when she was angry.
I pondered over this for a moment. I was the only heir to Papa’s gang in the underground. He was famous, even to the police and the President of France, Sarkozy. Nonetheless, he had his way to hide evidence of his crime that no one could arrest him. Yet.
It was necessary to keep my identity concealed. Everyone knew his son was Myung Soo Kim. Eventually, I developed this nickname L—or Eru in Japanese. Yes, got that from Death Note because Sung Yeol thought it was cool. Eru Kim, as people knew me. L, as the French called me.
I wondered if I should really tell her the truth. She was a complete stranger and logic has it that we shouldn't trust someone we had just met less than half-an-hour ago. But I had to admit that this time, it was different. There was something about her that made me want to tell the truth. I had this feeling that made me want to tell the truth for once. I knew that I shouldn’t trust anyone, but I had had enough playing cat-and-mouse all my life. Or was it just my rebellion surfacing?
Suddenly, I heard myself saying the words that I had not heard since Maman2 passed away.
“Myung Soo.”
~✡~✡~
I woke up the next morning to a vacant unit.
I stretched to loosen up my muscles as I made my way to the kitchen area. I noticed a note on the dining table and discovered that it was from Amber talking about the milk in the fridge and cereal in the clear container next to the note. I walked out of my sleepy zone and strained my neck. I went for a shower and got ready for Pharmacology lecture at 11:00, first class for the day before a Microbiology lecture at five. I planned to use the break to return to my unit to get my belongings with Sung Yeol’s help. I had to make sure he could get out of his baking class by 01:00 p.m.
I texted him before leaving and only received his reply, confirming his availability to help, as I arrived at Le Rêve, Woo Hyun hyung’s café, just near Université Paris Descartes. He probably just woke up. I slipped my phone in my pocket so I could order my hot chocolate. I do have this obsession with hot chocolate. I just had to taste every hot chocolate in town. But if someone asked which one was the best, then I would say Le Rêve as the answer.
As soon as I received my order, I left quickly for my first class of the day. I wanted to get there before she did. I wanted to surprise her. I found myself anticipating how she would react when she sees me.
~✡~✡~
I waved my hands in the air excitedly. I did it in silent as I didn’t want to attract attentions from our classmates.
It was good to be sitting at the back with everyone focused on their own discussions. But it was even better to see that funny, horrific look on her. When she gasped, the students turned towards her. Embarrassed for being the centre of attention, she collected herself and quietly made her way to sit next to me. I honestly did not expect that. I did not think that far to have her sit next to me.
“What are you doing here?" she hissed, looking around warily.
I smiled at her. “I’m a student too.”
She looked unconvinced as evident in her lifted eyebrow. I had to hold myself from laughing.
Mrs Dupont walked in and called out, “L Kim.”
I made my way to her to take the piece of paper. It was a print out of the email I sent her the other night, regarding a topic I had questions on, with her answers written on it. I thanked her and returned to my seat, expecting questions to be thrown at me. Why my name wasn’t Myung Soo, but L Kim.
Except she didn’t ask. She was lost in her own thoughts to ponder around that little detail. She probably thought it was my English name. Fortunately, that managed to make her believe I was really her classmate.
During the break, we ate together and talked. Just the two of us as the others went on their own way. We spoke about the courses we were in. She was in Medicine, of course I knew, but just for the sake of it I asked again and about it. When she shot me a disapproving glare, I had to grin in response. I knew she was a bit sensitive, but it was entertaining to watch her.
“So, when are you going to look for a place?" she asked.
I was sort of hurt hearing the question. It was like she didn’t want me around, but still had the heart to let me stay with her.
“You want me to leave that bad huh,” I said, keeping my grin intact to conceal my feeling. “Don’t you want the money? You need money right.”
"Yea I do, but I’m not going to bribe you,” she retorted.
And I told her my plan. “Well, first, I’m going back to my place today without getting caught, then move as much as I could to your place before I embark on my journey to find a new sanctuary.”
“How are you going to do that? I assume those guys will be loitering around your place like flies.”
My lips tugged into a smile, feeling good that she was interested. “You really catch on things really quickly aye,” I said, imitating an Australian accent that I heard from Crocodile Dundee. “Don’t you worry, I can look after myself.”
I looked at the time on my phone and realised that it was 13:45 already. I stood up and brushed the grass off my . Amber had another class at two p.m. for French, so she made her way to class early while I left to meet up with Sung Yeol. One hour late. He was irked when I reached Le Rêve. He was lamenting to Woo Hyun hyung, ”He'd better not stand me up that bastard!”, to which the listener laughed.
Without further ado, we went on our way. To our luck, the place was deserted when we got there, but we knew the men were around somewhere. Sung Yeol kept a watch around the area while I went up to get my clothes and other belongings. I didn’t have many, so it didn’t take me long. However, luck wasn’t really on our side. As I returned to Sung Yeol and we were about to leave, we heard shouting from the back and gasped in horror when we found five men after us. We sprinted off through alleys and finally exiting at an open road.
There was a massive crowd at the roadside, like the usual Paris. We kept hoping these people would camouflage us. Sung Yeol was panicking and at his wits’ end. “If my dad finds out I’ve been helping you, I’ll be killed!”
“Sorry.”
“You better in' love me!”
I couldn’t help but laugh at his threat. We increased our speed and finally arrived at… Le Crazy Horse de Paris.
I saw Sung Yeol’s eyes beamed at the sight of the close club. Red stickers forming the body silhouette of faceless girls were on the glassed windows. I was holding on to a big vase containing leave-less branches surrounded by red lights, similar to those ones on a Christmas tree, as I panted.
“Dude, this is where I’ve been wanting to take you!" he exclaimed in excitement.
I took a deep breath as I responded, still glancing at our back. “What is it?”
“Le Crazy Horse! The female version of the Latin Corner.”
I creased my eyebrows when the name rang a bell and turned to face him. “The Latin Corner? The male strip club Hyun Ah went to with her friends?”
“Dude,” he chided, ignoring what I said, “This is like the best Parisian strip club! This where Parisian women drop it like it’s hot! A competition to Moulin Rouge!” His arms were everywhere as he vented out his disappointment at my cluelessness. “Although, I don’t think it’s as good as Hot in New York.”
I saw the huge sign at the entrance with English writing stating: Crazy Bar for y Nights. My eyebrows furrowed in disgust. “That’s where you went off to that time you got lost in New York?!” He grinned and I shook my head. I glanced at our back to watch the situation. “What are we gonna do now? They saw you. They’d obviously report it to Uncle and Papa.”
He shrugged, suddely not caring anymore. “Whatever. I don’t know where you live anyway. My dad's still scarier than your dad.” At least, that was his opinion. I would beg to differ, though.
I looked at my watch as Sung Yeol peeked through the glassed window. “Hey, it’s almost four o’clock. I’m gonna be late to class. On y va!3” There won’t be enough time if we didn’t make a move now since I had to go to Amber’s to drop my belongings.
When no answer came from him, I poked him on the shoulder. He whirled around and snapped in annoyance, “What?”
“Are you listening?" I asked with the same degree of annoyance.
“No! I was thinking of when I could take you in here!” He pointed his thumb to the place behind him.
I winced. “Oh hell no! I don’t want to go in there.”
“Oh. What? You want to go to the Latin Corner instead? Watching gay males shaking their groove in speedos and eat a pile of whipped cream in the shape of a that they hold down there like those bachelorettes?”
I stared at Sung Yeol, offended. “Look, if you want to go, just go. I don’t want to go to disgusting places like that! What’s there to see anyway?” I shook my head in disbelief. Sung Yeol can be insensitive at times, but it rarely got on my nerves like it did now. “I’d go with you for your Bachelor party, but not for fun like that. You’d say I’m such a kid and I’m missing out on life, but it’s my life and I’ll do what I want with it.”
With that, I left him there in front of Le Crazy Horse. He can be Crazy with those Horses all he wanted.
To my dismay, I was still concerned about him being found by Papa’s men. I hoped he would be alright.
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
Comments