Chapter Nine:  Truth?... Or… Dare?

 

       “You like him, don’t you?” Nagisa suddenly asked after a very long silence. They were sitting on the balcony of their room in the hotel for a good amount of time that day, talking or sometimes just keeping the other company. For the past few minutes Sara had been staring out at the cloudy sky that was getting darker and darker as the night fell upon the city. She had been thinking. At the question though, she completely turned and looked at the girl, sitting beside her, eyes wide open; “What did you say?”

       The look of shock and the slightly pink cheeks made Nagisa smile faintly and she repeated herself; “You like him, don’t you?” she paused, looking at Sara; “And don’t give me that look, you know exactly who I’m talking about!”

       Sara didn’t say anything. What could she say? That yes, she kind of likes this guy she just met a few days ago? She still was not sure of it herself, was it really love? She looked away, eyes fixed on her feet as she hugged her knees and put her chin on them.

“So?!” Nagisa insisted, looking at her nurse and only friend for the past five years. T^T

“You just don’t give up, do you?” Sara pouted.

The other girl shrugged casually; “You know me!” she grinned.

Again, for some moments they were both silent, Nagisa giving the other woman time to think. “Well…” Sara began, “I guess… yeah…” she hesitantly looked at the younger girl beside her and blushed even more when she saw the smile on her face; “I know it’s weird. I know I’m not a child anymore. What am I thinking? Love at first sight? This is not a child’s game… I don’t even know him…”

“But you still like him, right?” Nagisa asked the smile still on her face.

       Staring at her, Sara nodded and covered her very red face with her cold hands, waiting for the girl’s usual reaction which is laughing and telling her that she’s crazy and so on… but then she felt a pair of hands circling around her pulling her into a gentle friendly hug, “I’m so happy for you Sara!”

Now Sara was definitely shocked; “What?” she asked.

       With that bright smile Nagisa replied; “YoungSaeng is a good guy! He’s very kind. I’m really happy for both of you guys.” She paused to see the effect of her words on the elder, “You guys are just the perfect match!”

“Huh?” Sara said staring at her friend in disbelief; “I don’t get it Nagi! What are you talking about? I said I like him but I never talked about him loving me too! Ok… we’re friends and we will be but… I mean… he’s the heir of the great Mr. Heo, how can he be with a mere nurse like me? It’s just not possible…” she shook her head to convince herself; “Not possible!”

       “Silly!” Nagisa flicked her forehead, laughing at how childish she became; “He likes you, don’t you see? He’s always looking at you! He tries to talk to you, Heo YoungSaeng, the silent guy who rarely speaks to anyone, tries so hard to talk to you and get your attention. He smiles when you do. He plays the piano whenever you ask him which is not like him, because he just plays for himself and whenever he wants to, even though Kyu is an exception. Seriously Sara, haven’t you noticed?”

“But…” the knock on their door stopped Sara from arguing any further, “Come inside, you! It’s getting cold and you’re trembling. Come on!” she rolled her eyes and got up, tugging on Nagisa’s hand to get her to stand.

       Once inside the room, the young girl threw herself onto the bed and curled under the blankets, pouting at the tinge of pain in her chest. “Who is it Sara?” she asked but instead of the answer she saw KyuJong and YoungSaeng coming into the room.

“Hey Nagi, wuss u-…” KyuJong panicked when he saw how the girl was shivering on the bed and how red her face had become. He rushed to the bed then sat beside her and touched her forehead; “Hey! You ok?”

       There he was again; the angelic KyuJong she tried so hard to forget the past five years. The one she loved! His sweet worried expression, those kind and caring eyes looking at her with concern which were melting her in their warmth and care. And she felt weak again; so it seemed that all these years that she tried to deceive herself that she just loves him as a friend were in vain, because here she was falling in love with this man all over again.

       Averting her eyes, Nagisa covered her burning face with the blanket; “Y-yeah… I’m fine! It was cold outside… that’s all!” she paused then looked at YoungSaeng who was talking to Sara and smiled. “What are you guys doing here anyway?” she then asked looking at the guys in their room and that was when Sara noticed how red her face was and started to worry, going towards her. Nagisa knew what would happen if Sara did what she thought so she glared at her which stopped the girl from going any further. After all she had made a promise to keep Nagisa’s secret.

       “Uhm… we wanted to go out for dinner, so just thought maybe… maybe you would like to come along?” YoungSaeng said looking at the two girls, noting the way they were looking at each other.

“Uh… I do-…” Sara wanted to disagree when Nagisa stopped her; “Yes! Why not?!” she looked at Sara with a don’t-you-dare-disagree-with-me look and then continued; “Sara will go with you guys but I’m tired and want to rest. I mean Sara needs to have fun every once in a while and not sticking to my side all the time, right YoungSaeng?” she asked the young man standing beside her friend now.

YoungSaeng was startled when Nagisa asked him that question out of nowhere and was about to answer when KyuJong said; “What do you mean you want to rest?” he was annoyed and hurt.

“I mean I want to rest.” Nagisa stated. It broke her heart to see that look on her lovely friend’s face but she couldn’t help it, the pain was there again. She could feel it coming and she couldn’t risk going out with them like this. “Come on Kyu~… I’m really tired. I promise we’ll go out together soon! Just the two of us!” she smiled a very cute smile and the young man just nodded, “Alright! I’m holding you to that!” he jabbed his finger into her face.

“I’ll stay then.” Sara said. She didn’t want to leave Nagisa, if the girl did not want to come out with them it could just mean one thing and that one thing was the reason she was here in Korea, so far away from her home just to take care of Nagisa.

“No you won’t!” Nagisa glared at her for the third time that day, then looked at YoungSaeng who was pouting a little now, “Make sure you take her with you YoungSaeng!” she ordered cheerfully and the man just smiled.

“But Nagi…” Sara was cut short again; “Show some respect Sara!” Nagisa huffed; “I want to be alone and rest! Now shoo! All of you!”

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“I pray not to release this hand even if I die,

I promise to walk with you until the end of time,

Because the extreme love can be worn out by time,

I vow to keep the beautiful memories and even the days that we cried…”

       The music stopped, “Aish !... it’s not working!” the young man ruffled his own hair in frustration. He’s been trying to play this part of the song for hours now and yet he couldn’t get it right; “Ah, YoungSaeng-ah, where are you man?” he said.

       “So you still play the guitar leader?” a voice said and the young man turned around. Seeing his friend, he smiled; “Yeah! Can’t help it. I love music” he replied, “What are you doing up here?”

       “I love being close to the sky!” Nagisa replied, looking up at the cloudy night sky above their heads and took a deep breath.

HyunJoong chuckled and turned to sit properly again and started to play; “You never change Nagi!”

       Nagisa agreed with a nod; “I haven’t but everything else here did…. You guys did!” she was now looking at the young man sitting in front of her.

       After taking a short nap, when she made sure that she was alright and the pain was completely gone she got out of bed. Since it was late and she couldn’t go out and if Sara came back and found out she’s missing there would be a great chaos, so Nagisa just decided to come out to the roof top.

“Yeah!” HyungJoong nodded in agreement, “We did!”

“HyunJoong,” Nagisa called and started to go and sit beside him, “What happened? I’ve been here for two months now and not even once I saw HyuRi here. No one talks about her… what happened?” she paused and sat down, looking at the young man’s sad face, “As far as I know you guys were in love, did any-…”

“I’m still in love with her…” HyunJoong interrupted, “I will always be.” He paused and touched his guitar strings slowly. “Four years ago… I lost her four years ago on a snowy night. They killed her Nagisa, they killed my wife and… my son!” he looked down at the guitar in his hands.

       The girl was appalled by the information; “Wh-what do you mean? Why would someone want to kill her?” then another fact hit her; “Wait a minute… your son?”

“Someone would kill her because I was dumb enough to ignore the blackmail I was receiving. Someone would want to kill her because of me! It’s all my fault!” he paused then smirked; “Yeah my son! She was pregnant and I didn’t know! That bastard killed my family.” The tears were visible in his eyes but the man was just trying to hold them back. “It was all my fault I lost them!”

       Mouth agape Nagisa didn’t know what to do or say, this was just too much for her to take in and besides, she could feel the pain coming back again, after all she was under so much stress now. She took HyunJoong’s hand and squeezed a little; “Not sure what to say leader, but I know for sure, that even if it was your fault, HyuRi has forgiven you long ago and it’s time you forgive yourself too!”

That did it, the tears fell from the man’s eyes and fell down onto the guitar; “How do you know that?” he asked.

“I know because I know her. And I know she doesn’t blame you for anything that has happened, HyunJoong. I don’t either!” she smiled when HyunJoong looked up at her.

“You sure?” he asked the young girl, as if she knew the answers to his questions.

Nagisa just nodded her head and the guitarist smiled too.

Moments later the sound of guitar could be heard in the silent night.

##############################################################################

….

“Yes! Once when I was still a young boy!” he said sipping at his glass of vodka and staring into the glass.

“What happened?” Sara asked.

“It never worked!” he smiled sheepishly and looked up at the people sitting around the table, “We were so much alike and you know she didn’t love me as a…. as a man!”

“Well, I’m sorry!” said Sara a little embarrassed for asking this question.

“No, don’t be!” the redhead chuckled, “Nothing changed between us. I got over it and we remained good friends.” He looked at KyuJong then averted his eyes quickly. “HyungJun!” he called, a devilish smile spreading on his face.

       Eyeing that dangerous smile, HyungJun cursed himself under his breath, “Why should we come to this particular restaurant guys?”

       The restaurant was Mr. Park’s property and was managed by his son, JungMin; so when they came here, the redhead joined them. Most of the time they would go there to have a good night together and a great meal.

The manager of the place snorted; “Your bad luck, Kim HyungJun!”

       “Why the hell did I agree to play with you involved in the first place?” the young man complained.

“Come on Jun, be a man!” YoungSaeng teased playfully.

“Hey turtle I’m still waiting!” JungMin said irritated, “Choose one already!”

“Be a man my !” HyungJun glared at his friends who were all trying to keep from laughing, then he faced the redhead; “Fine horse! Dare!” he said eventually.

KyuJong snorted; “You did it boy!” he patted HyungJun’s shoulder lightly.

“All right!” JungMin stated, eyes searching to find the best “dare” for this boy who just called him ‘horse’ again and when he found what he wanted he smirked. He called a waiter and whispered something into his ear then the guy left to come back with a full bottle of vodka. The best Russian vodka, Kauffman Luxury Vintage.

       That smirk made HyungJun regret what he said but he couldn’t take his words back so he waited, but seeing the bottle his eyes grew big in shock.

“I dare you to drink this, Kim HyungJun!” he put the bottle on the table in front of the shocked boy; “All of it!” he added.

“What the hell, Park JungMin?” the younger was now angry.

       Truth is, he is really bad with drinking. Give him a glass of vodka and he passes out immediately. Everyone knew about it, everyone including that redhead.

“No way!” HyungJun crossed his arms over his chest and looked away.

“Oh?!” JungMin raised a brow, “So you want to kiss me?!” he pointed out. The only rule for this game was that if one didn’t want to answer the question or do the dare they must kiss the guy posing the question. “In front of all these people?” the redhead mentioned looking around at the people in the restaurant.

       The others couldn’t hold it back and all of them started laughing. That’s how it would always be when HyungJun and JungMin were involved in anything. They were enjoying their time.

“Not in a million years!” HyungJun snapped then took the bottle and opened the cap. Looking at the bottle in his hands then glancing at his friends around the table he sighed and started drinking. He knew he would become their laughing subject for days.

“Your turn now!” KyuJong said after the younger finished the bottle.

       Hiccupping, HyungJun huffed, the alcohol was kicking in incredibly fast. He then looked up and saw his love, with a smile he called; “EunAh!”

       The cheerful girl turned to look at him and said; “Truth!” without waiting for the usual question.

“Ok!... uhm…” he hiccupped again; “Do you… do you think I’m still a child?” he asked, looking directly into her eyes. He wanted to know what she thought about him. The other boys chuckled but he didn’t care, all his attention on EunAh and her response.

       Shaking her head, the older girl replied; “Junie you’ll always remain a child because that’s your nature… but of course you’ve grown up and I know you are a real man now!” she then gave him a sweet smile and looked around to choose someone; “KyuJong!” she called.

“See?” the redhead spoke with a playful tone; “You’ll always remain a child, turtle!”

       Without any hesitation, the young man chose, “Truth!” and sipped at his wine glass, waiting for the question.

“Not that you have grown up, JungMin!” EunAh stated matter-of-factly and tweaked the sulking redhead’s nose.

       HyungJun couldn’t help it and burst into laughter the others following, “Haha! K.O, horse!” he nearly shouted.

       Now the people sitting around them in the restaurant were looking at them, “They’re so loud!” an old man whispered irritated.

“Yah! Stop it you idiot!” YoungSaeng scolded him still chuckling. “Everyone’s looking at us.”

       After recovering from the round of laughter, they all waited for EunAh to ask her question. “So it was truth?” she began, “Are you gay?” the older sister asked and that made everyone to burst into another crazy set of laughter.

Ok! That was unexpected. “NoonA!” KyuJong whined, “No… I’m not! Why would you ask such a question?” he was blushing now.

Still chuckling, EunAh said; “Well, I’ve never seen you with any girl… dating. Thought maybe… you know!”

“Oh… ew… no! oh God!” and KyuJong drank the whole glass.

“Ok! Ok! Kyu go ahead!” JungMin said.

“Sara!” KyuJong chose.

“Truth!” was the immediate answer.

“Oh! You people are boring! Why does no one picks dare?” HyungJun groaned.

“How did you get to know Nagisa? And why are you always with her?” KyuJong asked curious to know the reason.

All right! Now why does it have to be this question? What was she supposed to say? That she’s Nagisa’s nurse and she’s always with her to take care of her?! No! she must keep this one secret.

“You can only ask one question mister!” Sara pointed out.

KyuJong pouted; “Ok! How did you get to know each other?” he asked.

“Ok. Well…” she started hesitantly; “I am a nurse… and I got to know her when I was hired to take care of her sick grandfather. Well the poor guy died but we became good friends. That’s it!” she smiled and sighed in relief.

       KyuJong’s expression was worried when he heard that Sara is a nurse, he thought maybe something was wrong with Nagisa, and after all, five years was long enough for things to happen, but when Sara continued he felt relaxed.

“YoungSaeng!” Sara chose quickly.

A little tipsy, the young man smiled and chose, “Dare!”

“Then, I dare you to sing right here, right now!” Sara demanded with a mischievous smile.

Everyone stared at Sara with wide eyes.

“Oh man!” YoungSaeng rubbed his forehead helplessly, “Playing these games with you guys is crazy!” he huffed completely forgetting the fact that he could easily say no and kiss the girl he liked so much…

 

To be continued…