A/N: Tagged places do exist in Paris.

  

 

 

“Make every second count.”

Tips: Copy and paste the vocabularies onto a wordpad or MWord, so you can look at it as you read through instead of scrolling up and down.

French Vocabulary: 

1 Parle à ma main: Talk to the hand.

2 Le Rêve: the dream.

3 J’en sais pas: I don’t know.

4 On y va!: Let's go!

 

10 Years Ago

 

Fatal Bazooka’s Parle à ma main1 rang in my ears, jolting me out of my sleep. I grunted and my hand made its way to my night stand to turn the phone alarm off. After a moment of lying down in silence, I rubbed my eyes and squinted at my phone screen.   1 incoming message.   Please not the girl from last night, I silently begged. She was so naggy and clingy, damn it! But she was hot, my God! Having the best night with her compensated for her annoying behaviour.   I opened the message and exhaled in relief to discover it was from my best brother, L. Appa was ordering his men to ‘visit’ his new place yesterday and I had warned him to stay away. He should feel fortunate that his best friend’s dad working for his dad.   Not wanting to stall any further or let my curiosity eating me away, I opened the text.

 

 

Oh ok. That was quick. Well, he usually did get a new place sooner than expected somehow, but in just one night? How is that even possible? I decided to ask him later and got ready for the day ahead.   I arrived at Woo Hyun hyung’s café, Le Rêve2, at about 12:30, so I could hang out with him for a bit. It was very crowded and I decided to find an available table without bothering him as he helped his employees serving the customers. I had baking class today, but it was just revision for bread baking process. I knew it already as I had been practicing at home for the past weeks, which was why I decided to give it a pass. Hyun Ah had scolded me last night that she gained two kilos because I had been feeding her carbs. I laughed out loud at her remarks and told her that she could just keep doing Pilates to stay in shape. I meant she didn’t even look like she had gained those two kilos. Girls and body issues.   “So, what does our Prince Sung Yeol want today?” Woo Hyun hyung asked playfully as he came over to my table with a smirk.   “You,” I replied, cocking my eyebrows seductively.   His guffaw blended in with the loud chatters in the café. “The usual I’m guessing?”   “Yep. Cajun chicken and an Americano.” He rolled his eyes in amusement, shaking his head. I have always had an infatuation with chicken, especially when it’s spicy.  As he whirled around to head to the back, I stopped him. “No rush. I’m meeting L at one, but he can wait till I finish eating.” Woo Hyun hyung chuckled and nodded.   I played Angry Birds on my phone as I waited for my order, but soon had to put it away because my order came sooner than expected. I smirked knowingly and searched for Woo Hyun hyung to find him serving a customer. Being the hyung that he is, he always looked out for L and me. Whenever we came to his café, he made sure that we were treated like VIPs. I liked it, of course, because as much as I’d like to be nice to these customers, there were just too many of them and I was worried I would be there for three hours at most.   After I finished my food, I looked at the entrance door for any sign of L, but there was none. I was getting worried that the men somehow got to him on his way here, but soon the thought was eased as I remembered that they never came around our Universities or schools for us considering we weren’t meant to be acknowledged by the public.   I texted L and called him, but he didn’t pick up. Worry became annoyance, which eventually became fury. Where the hell is he?   Sick of waiting for him, I took out my cigarette and lighter for a smoke. It was almost two p.m. and L still had not come around. Customers, who had work to return to, soon left. There were only a few old men in the non-smoking area and me in the smoking space remained in the café. Woo Hyun hyung sauntered over to the seat in front of me and plopped himself there exhaustedly.   “So, where’s L?”   “J’en sais pas3,” I said, irritation transparent in my tone. “I’ve been calling him and texting him, but he didn’t even reply! He’d better not stand me up that bastard!”   Woo Hyun hyung laughed, then his eyes shifted to the outside window. I saw a glint in his eyes as he declared, “Oh, here he is!”   I turned to see L running and making apologetic gestures with one hand, as his other one held on to his shoulder bag. I narrowed my eyes at him and sulked as he apologised. I went off at him to explain, but he said he got caught up at uni. I wondered if he had an affair with his lecturer? Hmm… Mrs Dupont wasn’t that old from what I knew.   Still annoyed, we went on our way to L’s ex-place, which turned out to be near Gare d’Austerlitz. No wonder he always wanted to meet there every time we were to hang out. His place was deserted when we got there, but we were fully aware that the men were around somewhere. L went upstairs to get his stuffs, while I watched the coast vigilantly, looking around here and there and leaned on the wall, so I didn’t look suspicious to the neighbourhood.   I was relieved that no men were on site. However, when L returned and we were about to leave, I suddenly heard shouting from our back and before we could say anything, the next thing I knew, we were already bolting away for our life. We went through alleys after a