TWO

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I had to admit that what Daehyun did for me was pretty sweet and what I did in return was somewhat…harsh. I actually felt extremely sorry; first, because it was probably a major embarrassment for him to be rejected in front of our classmates and second, because all his effort and all the money spent on the roses and other stuff were put to waste. I could’ve been a little less rough… but things just happened way too fast, I had no time to think about how to respond properly to all of them.

So there I was, meters away from the school gate, already feeling bad about what just happened and then Kyung Mi came and made me feel a lot worse.

I went home with puffy eyes and a heavy heart. Not wanting my mom to see my state, I took out a book from my bag and pretended to read it as I entered the house. “Oh you’re home, how was your day?” she asked. “uhh yeah, it was good.” I replied, still looking down, avoiding eye contact. “Okaaay. Well, I see you’re kind of busy. I’ll just call you when dinner’s ready then.” I nodded and ran upstairs to my room. Even my room seemed gloomy, the lights were dim and the ambiance was strange. I pulled out a face towel from my drawer and went to the bathroom to wash my face. My eyes were still red and so was my nose. I splashed my face with cold water and carefully patted it dry. I stared at my own reflection for a while and I swear I almost ate myself up with my cold, steady eyes and expressionless face whatsoever. I did not move and seemed inwardly quiet. Then I heard Kyungmi’s words again…in my head. “Hye Soo~ya, you can’t forever base your life on what happened to your parents! You have imprisoned yourself subconsciously, you are afraid to be loved and to feel love. At least once, open your heart to other possibilities! That’ll set you free from all your fears and all the things you are hoping to avoid.” A part of my body felt like it was struck by an arrow or something, so truth really does hurt huh? I abruptly shook my head to brush the thoughts away. I looked at myself in the mirror one last time and stepped out of the bathroom. I changed into some fresh house clothes to feel a little bit warmer and better. After changing, I went downstairs to check on my mom.

“Dinner’s not ready yet?” I asked. 

Eomma, unaware of my presence, jumped a little. “Omo~ you scared me!

“I’m sorry.” I giggled a bit.

“You, sneaky little girl. Dinner’s almost ready.” She answered, letting out a soft chuckle.

“Haha, I was not sneaking. Do you want me to help you?” I know mom wouldn’t let me help her but I still asked anyways.

“No, it’s okay. You just sit there and wait.” Mom said as she flicked her head a little to the side, signaling me to sit at the table.

“Okay.” I rested my head on my hand and my elbow on the table, looking at my mom’s back view. And then as I was watching her, something inside me induced me to gather up all my courage to ask her one thing. “Eomma?” I managed to speak up. 

“Yes, honey?” she replied, taking a quick glance at me while still trying to focus on cooking.

“Just out of curiosity, love…is it good? Or is it bad?” I blurted out, I just thought that mom would be the best person to answer this.  

“Eo? Well…I personally believe that love is good, sweetie. As most people say, it is the best thing in the world. It is wonderful and special…especially when we get to share it with the right person. But you see, some people also say that it is bad but I think otherwise. It’s not love that is bad, it’s not the feeling…but rather, the people who feels it make it seem bad. It’s a matter of sincerity and loyalty.” Mom replied with her most light hearted voice.

“How do you know if he’s the right one then?” Still curious, I asked. I seriously know nothing about…love.

“You just know. You won’t have to wonder, you won’t have to doubt. You're gonna feel it in ways you can't explain.” She replied.

“What happened to…ohh, nevermind.” I stopped; I didn’t want to bring back some memories of pain.

“What happened to me and your father?” Mom finished my question. I looked at her with a worried face but she assured me she was fine with it with a smile. “Let’s just say that I was totally certain that he was the one but unfortunately, I wasn’t the one for him.” She continued.

“What? Is that even possible?” I hissed. “So do you still love him, eomma?” Although mom had answered all my previous questions, she didn’t answer the last one. She just smiled.

The next morning, 15^th of March, 2009, I decided to confront Daehyun. I thought about this deeply last night. I thought about what Kyungmi said all night and mom helped me to finally come up with this decision…I’m gonna give it a try. I’ll try to open my heart and give Daehyun a chance.

He was the first person I looked for when I entered the classroom. My anxious eyes searched everywhere but he was nowhere in sight. He was not yet around. I looked at my watch and realized that I was too early so I went to my seat and practiced what I was going to say. “Daehyun~ah, sorry about yesterday. I’m now giving you a chance.” I shook my head. No. It doesn’t sound right. How about…”Jung Daehyun, you are so sweet, really. And uhm… I decided to give you a chance.” No. Ohgod. Why is this so hard?? As I was about to picture another scene and another line, I heard faint voices and footsteps coming. I immediately stopped what I was doing; silently wishing it was him to finally get things over with. Shadows of three persons were slowly approaching the door. A few seconds later, Daehyun came in with Jongup and Youngjae by his side. Jongup tried to pat Daehyun’s back but before he could even place his hand just below Daehyun’s shoulder, Daehyun quickly shoved his hand away, which left him with a pouty face.

Daehyun didn’t seem like he was in the mood to talk so I thought that maybe it would be a better idea to talk to him after class…but as soon as he got closer, a strong force pulled me up from my seat, causing me to involuntarily stand up. They stopped their pace when they saw me standing in front of them, looking pretty dumbfounded. I stared at them for a couple of seconds and blinked twice before I uttered the word, “Uhmm…” “Uhmm” that was all that came out of my mouth. Is that even a word? I sounded so stupid.

“Yeaaah, okay. We’ll just be in our seats if you need something, bro.” Youngjae said, addressing to Daehyun. Daehyun looked at him with piercing eyes but he only smirked and acted like he didn’t even notice it. “Bye, Hye soo” he continued while placing his arm around Jongup’s shoulder, dragging him towards the back of the room where their seats were located.

And the two of us, Daehyun and I, faced again. It was awkward; we just stood there, staring into each other's eyes and not even a single word was spoken. After a few seconds, we opened our mouths at the same time, like both of us were about to say something but still, neither one of us spoke; instead, we just laughed at our own silliness. “You first” he finally said, breaking the awkwardness. I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. “Look, about yesterday…I’m really sorry. It was just that…” I wasn’t able to finish my sentence because he cut me off.

“No, it was fine. I totally understand. And you know what, that was actually just the beginning. I’m not giving up that easily. So you better wait, I still have a lot of surprises in store.” he chuckled. “But seriously though, I’m not giving up on you.”

I felt my heart literally skip a beat when he said that. What just happened? He smiled at me, looking a little embarrassed. I can’t help but smile at his adorableness. “Well, I guess I’ll uhh…talk to you later?” he added.

“Yeah, sure.” And with that, our little conversation ended.

27^th of April, 2009. It was late afternoon when I took my new pet dog, Oreo, for a walk in the park. He was all happy to be outside for the first time so he was pulling me a little bit, running in every direction. I got tired all of a sudden so I decided to rest for a while on the nearest double bench. I took Oreo’s leash off and let him run around the area while I sat there and watched. He was obviously really excited but since he was still new to the the place, he constantly growled softly at almost everything. I was just about to get my iPod from my pocket when a guy sat on the other side of the bench; I could feel his back pushing against mine. I sighed a breath of ‘uncomfortability’ and moved a little to the side. He then started humming a familiar song...my favorite song. I slowly turned to face him but I could only see a quarter of his face, he was looking the other way. Only his hair, his jaw line, and a part of his nose were visible and they were all familiar. They were just like Dae…No, it can’t be. I stared at him for a few more seconds and carefully examined his facial structures. I leaned in a little bit closer to get a clearer view, when suddenly; he turned his face towards me. Due to complete surprise, I froze. Our faces were so close, I could feel his breath on me and I could hear him breathing softly. It took me forever before I realized what was really going on. When I came back to my senses, I quickly pulled back and looked away. I heard him giggle quietly so I looked at him once again and saw the biggest grin on his face. “Ya! What are you giggling about?” I yelled as I playfully smacked him on his shoulder.

“Nothing.” He replied, still giggling.

It was already embarrassing that I failed to retreat right away; the sight of him laughing made it even more embarrassing. I could feel my cheeks getting hot and red.  “Why are you here anyways?” I asked to change the topic.

He finally stopped giggling and looked me straight in the eye. “What do you think is the reason why I’m here?”

“Let’s see, I don’t know…are you perhaps, stalking me? Because that would be really creepy.” I wittingly answered.

“What?” he burst into laughter, a loud, coarse one. “I am not stalking you; I came here because…you know, I got bored at home.” He stuttered.

By the look on his face, he was obviously lying. Whatever the reason was, I don’t know. He was making up a reason; he looked silly. “Ohh okay then.” I said, showing my discontentment. “It’s getting dark, I need to go. I’ll see you around.” I continued.

“Wait, can I at least walk you home?” he grabbed my hand and got hold of it which caught me off guard. He probably felt that I was uncomfortable with his hand on mine so immediately let go of it and apologized.

“No, it’s okay. I’ll just go get Oreo and then we can go.” I smiled.

We were side by side, our shoulders inches apart, walking at a slow pace. Nobody spoke a word. I stole glances at him from time to time. I tried to think of an interesting topic but I couldn’t come up with anything. It was silent, so silent that it was almost deafening.

About 5 minutes has passed, we reached a portion of the street were the light was not working. “Look.” He said, pointing to the sky, eventually breaking the long silence. I followed the direction of his finger and looked up to the sky, it was full of stars.

“Wow, it’s so beautiful. The stars are exceptionally bright tonight.” completely dazzled, I replied.

“It sure is…but not as beautiful as you. They sure are…but not as bright as your eyes.” He whispered.

In my peripheral vision, I saw him intensely staring at me. I turned to face him and our eyes instantly met. He took a few steps closer and gazed deeply into my eyes. My heart thumped louder and faster than usual and my breathing got shallow. I turned my head away but his free hand cupped my left cheek and turned me slowly to face him again. I closed my eyes as he leaned down and lowered his head. His nose touched mine and…

WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!  There is no worse sound in life than the shriek of the alarm clock to wake you in the morning. I woke up to sound of my new alarm clock. I was breathing heavily and I could feel my heart beating against my chest. Then, I remembered my dream. So it was all just a dream? And why did I dream of him? I hurriedly got out of my bed and dialed Kyungmi’s number on my phone. It was ringing but no one was picking up. “Come on. Come on. Come on, pick up!” I dialed it once again and this time, on the third ring, Kyungmi picked up the call. “Ya! Why the hell are you calling me at 7 in the morning? This better be important or I’m seriously going to kill you.” Her voice echoed through the phone and through the whole room. “This is beyond important. You see, I had a dream last night or a while ago, or whatever. And…”

Without waiting for me to finish my sentence, Kyungmi retorted, “Yeah? I had one too! He was just about to kiss me and then you woke me up so thanks a lot!”  

“What?? How’d you know?!” I totally misheard what she said.

“What?? How’d I know what??” she asked, sounding a bit intrigued or something. “OMG. You dreamt about Daehyun, didn’t you?? And he kissed you?!”

“No! He didn’t kiss me, okay? He was just…about to.” I answered back. I purposely lowered my voice on the last sentence ‘cause it was…disturbing. “What is happening to me, Kyungmi?? I have been dreaming about him for the past couple of days but this has to be weirdest one yet.” I added.

“You’re seriously asking me what’s going on? Dude, that’s so simple, even my dog can answer that. You like him, Hye soo! You like Daehyun!”

I do?“I don’t! That’s impossible.” I disputed.

“You do! You do! Yes, you do! Sheesh, I’m going back to sleep. I’ll call you later.”And just like that, she hung up.  

“I like him?” I thought. Just saying the word, ‘like’, makes me cringe. But do I really like him? I remembered a time when Kyungmi had a huge crush on this guy and she kept talking about him, like how she can’t stop thinking about him and how she kept having him in her dreams. That’s exactly my situation right now. I keep thinking about him and I keep dreaming about him. I guess Kyungmi was right again. I like him. I like Daehyun.

A/N:

HELLO THERE! yeaaah, this is not yet the end of story...obviously. XD i know i said that this is going to be a two-shot fic but...surprise! it's not! hahahaha i decided to make it a three shot. XD AND THAT'S MY FINAL DECISION :D this fic we'll be three chapters long and the last chapter will be posted soon...i think ;) The reason why i changed my mind again is because last Saturday, i told myself that i am going to post this on Sunday, finished or unfinished. But then, I got really busy in school so i wasn't able to write it on the weekdays. I tried to finish it last night, but only completed it up to this point. So i'm really sorry :/ I'll probably post the last chapter on or before Sunday again :)

to all my subscribers and readers...THANK YOU SO MUCH! ♥   *sending you all my hugs and kisses*  and i appreaciate all your comments ♥ thank you for the kind words :**