Chapter 30: Punch 2

13 hours prior to the call.

Yongguk was in the kitchen, making breakfast when Daehyun came in, dressed in a dark blue sweater, ripped jeans and white sneakers and a backpack on one shoulder.

    “Are you going to school?”

    “I'm too old for that”

    “It's never too late”

    “Well, I've never been smart” Daehyun said “I'll just go to work”

    “Didn't know Dasom got a photo shoot today”

    “I'm talking about my real job at the newspaper” the younger said as he looked at the pancakes, bacon and eggs and sandwiches on the table.

    “Do you want me to put the food in lunchboxes, so you can take them with you?” Yongguk asked as he noticed Daehyun drooling over the food.

    “Yes, if you don't mind” Daehyun said “You're a master chef for a cop”

    “I wanted to be a chef, but my grand-grand-grandfather was a police, my grandfather was a police, my father was a police, my mother...”

    “I hear you, your whole family are police officers” Daehyun cut him off “But if you wanted to be a chef, you should have gone for it”

    “Being a police isn't so bad” Yongguk shrugged and handed a bag full of lunchboxes with food for him.

    “See you later” Daehyun said and headed to the door.

    “I'll go with you, I'm your bodyguard”

    “You're Dasom’s bodyguard” Daehyun said “Nobody wants to kill me”

    “Yeah, but...”

    “If you get bored, you can walk Ganji”

“Good morning, Geunsoo hyung” Daehyun came into his boss' office and gave him a hot Americano and donuts.

    “Lately, you're happy, you finally got a girlfriend”

    “Very far from the reality”

    “Meh, having a girlfriend is overrated” he said, gloomy.

    “Are you ok?” Daehyun asked as his boss seemed upset.

    “My girlfriend isn't talking to me, because I forgot Valentine's Day. She told me to give her the most amazing Valentine's ever or she'll break up with me”

    “That's horrible. What will you do?”

    “I don't know, but I heard that you love mellow dramas, so you must have many ideas for when a guy makes his girlfriend mad and want to get her back”

    “I don't love mellow dramas, I just watch them... like all of them...”

    “So take the day off and come back when you have the best Valentine’s date ever for my girlfriend”

    “It's your girlfriend, the woman you love, shouldn't be the ideas come from your heart?”

    “You're so cute” Geunsoo said “You're perfect for this job” he waved his hand to dismiss him.

“I don't even have a girlfriend, how the hell am I supposed to know what to do? It's true I watch a lot of dramas though” Daehyun said as he walked down the hallway.

    99% dramas, the lead actor always made the lead actress mad, he always bought an expensive gift for her or sang a love song, maybe Geunsoo should buy his girlfriend a Gucci bag or sing a song, Daehyun thought as he hit a door and fell on his .

    “Daehyun!!! Are you ok?!!!” A girl yelped as she stretched out her hand to his.

    “Natalie? What are you doing here?” Daehyun looked at her up and down to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

    “Take my hand first”

    Daehyun took her hand and she helped him up.

    “You're always daydreaming, you got a girl in your thoughts?”

    “Uh? No, no, I.... What are you doing here?” Daehyun flushed intensely. He was weak and soft everytime she was around.

    “I tried calling you, but... I wanted to see you... I don't know where you're staying... So I went by your work... I hope not to be a nuisance”

    Her smile faded and her eyes welled with tears and Daehyun’s heart flinched.

    “Tell me what's going on” he took her arm tightly although his intention was to comfort her, he couldn't stand watching her cry and deep down he knew who was to blame.

    “Is there someplace else we can talk?”

    Daehyun realized that there were some coworkers overhearing, he sighed and took Natalie to the coffeehouse next to the building.

“Sorry if I’m being rude, but what happened?” Daehyun offered a hot chocolate to Natalie before sitting in front of her.

    “It's me who should say sorry”

    “It's the of my cousin, right? It's him, don't lie to me”

    “I found him with another woman in our bed”

    “I knew it!!!” Daehyun slapped the table, he wanted to flip it and trash the place.

    “You warned me, you said he'd cheat on me again. Everybody said it and I still accepted marrying him”

    “You haven’t married him yet, right? So you can leave him now that you know that he's a piece of ” Daehyun tried to sound sad, but his voice was too excited; he was too excited to know the woman he loved was free.

    “Yeah, I gave him the ring back and I bought a plane ticket. I'll be leaving in the morning, but I didn't want to leave without seeing you for the last time”

    “I'll always be by your side” Daehyun for the first time dared to take Natalie's hand without shaking and held it tightly like he could express all his love that way.

    “Thank you, talking to you always makes me feel better” she pulled her hand away, leaving an empty feeling in Daehyun's chest “I guess I'll book a hotel by tonight”

    “You can stay in my apartment”

    “Your friend won't get mad?”

    “What friend?”

    “You said you're living with a friend, a coworker, aren't you?”

    “Yeah? He won't mind”

“You live here?” Natalie said in shock as Daehyun took her to the fanciest apartment ever in the fanciest neighborhood ever “How much money do you make at the newspaper?”

    “My friend pays most of this”

    “What does your friend do to afford such place? This is more expensive than my house”

    I live with a girl named Dasom, she does a lot of modeling job and get paid pretty well, Daehyun thought and shook his head, that sounds awful, I don't want her to think Dasom's my girlfriend... I can tell her I’m Dasom… That's creepy, she'd hate me... I can say I live with Youngjae who earns good money... Ew, that sounds like he's my sugar daddy? Ew... Ew...

    “Nevermind, I'm happy you have a place to stay after your aunt made you leave” Natalie said, sitting on the couch.

    “Yeah... I haven’t seen her or my uncle or my cousin... Sorry, I didn't mean to mention him...” Daehyun sat down beside her.

    “It's ok”

    “You want some food? Yongguk always makes a lot” Daehyun jumped up off the couch.

    “Your friend is Yongguk?”

    “Yeah, it's Yongguk, he works as a bodyguard”

    “Oh, that's why he can afford this place, I guess he protects socialites and idols”

    “Yes, that’s it! One of his clients is Youngjae who lives upstairs, that's why we live here”

    “It makes sense”

    “It does” Daehyun bit his lower lip, Yongguk was right when he said he was a good liar.

    Daehyun went to the kitchen and headed to the fridge, there was a note with a fridge magnet in the shape of Tigger from Winnie-the-Pooh. Daehyun had never seen that, so Yongguk must have brought that with him. The note said Himchan showed up and now we're going to take Ganji for a walk.

    “This means that Himchan took Yongguk and Ganji shopping, they won't be back until the last store in Seoul is closed” Daehyun said and opened the fridge to find pancakes in containers, but it was dinnertime, not breakfast, so he looked for something more suitable.

    He took chicken, tomatoes and spaghetti. He didn’t want to brag, but he was very good at making spaghetti, maybe Natalie will fall in love with him after that. Daehyun shook his head, he felt stupid just by thinking about it.

Natalie was very impressed by Daehyun's cooking skills, not enough to fall in love with though. They had a really fun night. After eating, they lay on the living room’s floor and drank beer and talked about old times like hanging out at karaoke after school, playing video games, buying sweets, etc. At some point they forgot their friendship and then now they were catching up like they were never separated.

    “Oh, Daehyun, why don't we share like this more often? I've missed you!!!”

    “You're the one who moved to Andong”

    “You can move in with me”

    “What?”

    “I'm joking! It's not like you're my boyfriend”

    I'd love to be your boyfriend, he thought and forced a smile.

    “I lost a fiancé, but I got my best friend back” she gave him a tight hug.

    “Best friend” Daehyun said as he closed his eyes and inhaled the perfume from her.

    “Well, I better go to sleep” she pulled away and got up from the ground clumsily. She was tipsy by the beer “Oh, no”

    “What?”

    “I left my stuff at your house, I mean, at your aunt's house... Your cousin asked me to move in with him, so I did that and then...” the very thought of him ing a stranger in their bed made her feel like crying again.

    “I still have my keys, I'll go for your stuff” Daehyun said “Meanwhile you get some sleep, ok?”

    “Thank you so much” she put her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek “Why didn’t I fall in love with you? You're too perfect, cute, sweet… You’d never cheat on me, never”

    Daehyun looked into her eyes and then he looked at her lips, he could kiss her the way he always wanted to, but he knew it was wrong. She was drunk and she didn’t mean any of the things she said. In fact, she was hurt, she’d sleep with anyone just to get even and Daehyun loved her too much and couldn’t bear to be anyone.

    “There’s lots of bedrooms, you can take whichever you want” Daehyun said and left before doing something he’d regret.

Daehyun went to his ex-house. It was a Wednesday, his uncle was at work and his aunt was at church, so he didn't have to face any of them. He came into the house, the lights were on, Natalie told him she shared room with his cousin, that made him sick, but he managed to go there for her stuff, however, when he opened the door, he found his cousin ing a woman on the bed.

    At first, he felt shame and his face turned red as heat struck him, and then he got mad because Natalie was crying at his flat while his cousin didn't give a damn and kept ing as if nothing.

    He walked over to his cousin and grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him out of bed and punched his face. The woman looked at the stranger that beat his lover in confusion and Daehyun's cousin touched his bruised cheek before staring at the man before him and realizing it was Daehyun.

    “What do you think you're doing?”

    In reply, Daehyun punched him again, this time his cousin hit back. They threw punches and kicks, they fell to the ground and rolled out the room and ended up out of the house. Daehyun's cousin was and his face was full of bruises and blood and Daehyun wasn’t any better, but he didn’t care. And they kept fighting like beasts in the garden for everyone to see.

    “Are you crazy? Stop it!!!” the woman had covered herself with a sheet and followed them.

    The neighbors got out of his houses, there was an old lady who saw the guy and the not guy fighting. She was so scandalized that ordered her son to call the police.