Eun Ji

Zico was acting weird the whole ride to the restaurant. He was still the whole way. When we stopped in front of the restaurant, he quickly got out and walked inside, not even bothering to wait for my siblings and I. I grabbed my bag and got out of the car, walking into the restaurant. When I opened the door, everyone was already there sitting at a long wooden table.

“Hey, where were you?” Kyung yelled over the noise. I looked around to find Zico sitting next to Kang Gary and Jae Rim. I walked towards the empty seat next to Kyung and sat down before answering his question.

“I was walking here. Why? You missed me” I playfully pinched his cheeks, making baby noises.

“Stop!” He grabbed my wrist and held them up in the air.

“Okay sorry. I didn’t mean to do that” I pulled my hand away, feeling embarrassed at what I had just done.

“Eun Ji, I’m the one who’s supposed to pinch those chubby chipmunk cheeks of yours. You’re not allowed to touch Kyung’s cheeks.” He said as he pinched my cheeks, rubbing them in between his fingers.

"Ow stop!” I yelped in pain.

“Not unless you do aegyo for me” He mocked, not attempting to let go.

“Ok” I quickly agreed, wanting the pain to stop.

“Okay do your aegyo for me!”

“Kyung, I love you!” I said sarcastically ,before making a finger heart after I was done.

“Oh my goodness! Eun Ji is so cute” Kyung beamed, making hand gestures.

“I’m hungry” I heard Tae Woo whine. I looked across the table to see him rubbing his stomach in a circular motion.

“You’re not the only one, kid. I’m hungry too” Ji Hoon added, tilting his head to the side.

“No one’s telling you not to order, Ji Hoon. You can order if you’re that hungry. Just because we’re not ordering doesn’t mean you have to wait, okay?” Kang Gary said, getting up.

“You guys order. I’ll be right back.” He walked away from the table, towards the door to the restrooms. I looked around the restaurant taking in everything from the nicely decorated center tables to the sushi belt that sat in the center of the restaurant. I looked in front of me to find a menu. I picked up the plain white menu and opened it. On the left side were Korean dishes, on the right side were Chinese dishes and in the center were Japanese dishes. What immediately caught my eye was the picture of the Japanese food Yaki Udon. I decided to order that.

“Are all of you guys ready to order?” I heard Kang Gary ask. I nodded my head yes. Kang Gary called over a waitress who took all of our orders and told us that we were allowed to go to the sushi belt and get some sushi. She told us the prices of each colored plate. After she was done, I excused myself from the table and headed for the sushi belt. As I was looking at all of the assorted sushi pass by, I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I slowly turned around and came  face to face with the guy I met earlier at the aquarium.

“Eun Ji?” He asked in a questioned voice. I nodded my head yes.

“Do you remember my name?”

“Yeah, Seung Ho” I said, letting out a smile.

“That’s right. I thought I would never see you again!” He reached out for one of the plates containing a pinkish fish on top of rice.

“Hey you should try this, it’s really good” He held up a plate of fried cubed thingies. I didn’t even know what to call it.

“What is that?” I bent down to smell it. It smelled really good.

“This is Agedashi Tofu” He said, handing it to me. I looked at the color of the plate and it was green meaning it was a very expensive dish.

“No thank you. I can’t afford to buy this” I put the plate on the counter and stood there, looking at the sushi belt.

“Can’t your boyfriend buy it for you?”

“Oh…no…no… He’s my friend” My cheeks flushed red and I looked to the side, trying to hide my face.

“Oh! Could have fooled me. You guys looked like a couple” He leaned in towards me, probably looking at the sushi.

“Take it, it’s my treat. I’ll pay for it, okay?”

I looked to him and almost lost my breathe. His lips pouted and he smiled with his eyes.

“Okay thank you, Seung Ho” I took the plate again and held onto it.

“Where are you from, Eun Ji?”

“I’m from Seoul”

“Me too! But I don’t live there currently. I migrate” He took another sushi off the sushi belt and put it on his tray.

“Oh that’s interesting. I wish I had the money to do that!” I exclaimed, placing my palms on the counter.

“You can be my travelling buddy if you want” He chuckled a bit, looking down at his 2 plates.

“Yeah when I graduate” I let out a slight laugh.

“Hey I know that we just met and all…but….” He looked at me quickly before looking elsewhere.

“But…”

“Can I have your number?”

I looked at him, a bit skeptical at his question. Why would you want my number when you just met me?

“I enjoy talking to you and I thought that we could get to know each other more by exchanging our personal contacts even though we just met” he looked so confident.

“Ah...Yeah sure. It’s alright with me. Can I have your phone?” He handed over his phone and I looked at it, wondering how to turn it on.

“Here, let me do it” He took the phone away and turned it on, clicking some stuff on the touch screen before giving it to me. I typed in my name and number and handed it back to him.

“You can call me whenever you want, Seung Ho. But don’t call me during school hours” I wiggled my index finger at him, frowning. He started laughing under his breath, turning away.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, wanting to know.

“That face makes you look like those people who do the gag concerts. Sorry” He bowed and quickly got back up to his original posture.

“It’s okay. Ah…I have to go. My table is waiting” I pointed to the table where everyone was eating and stuffing their faces.

“Who are those people?”

“My friends. I’m actually here on vacation visiting. I’ll go back to Seoul on Monday”

“Oh okay, well I’ll call you when I get the chance to. It was nice meeting you again Eun Ji” He picked up his tray and walked away, leaving me at the sushi belt with a dumb grin on my face. I grabbed my plate and walked to the table, still smiling.

“Yah! What took you so long? You were gone for almost 10 minutes” Tae il asked, covering his mouth with a napkin.

“Oh I saw a friend there and we were just chatting, that’s all”

“Sure don’t you mean it was more like flirting with each other” Joon-Kyung coughed under his breath, looking away.

“I wasn’t flirting with him. We were just talking and getting to know each other” I said as I dug into my lukewarm Udon. I broke apart the sushi and gave some to Jae Rim and Tae Woo. As I was eating and chatting with the guys, I felt my phone vibrate. I opened my bag and brought out my phone, looking at the unknown number. I answered the phone, looking around the room.

“Hey this is Seung Ho. I was just testing the number you gave me to see if it worked”

“Oh okay” I continued looking around the room, wondering where he was.

“Look across the sushi belt. You’ll see me looking at you” I blushed slightly, because I got caught. I turned around and looked across the sushi bar and there he was. Seung Ho sitting there, staring at me with the phone at his ear.

“You found me, Eun Ji” His voice dropped. I waved at him and let out a smile.

“Yeah I found you”

“Well I should let you get back to your meal. I’ll talk to you later, Eun Ji” he hung up the phone and smiled at me, signaling that our conversation was over. I closed my phone and slipped it back inside my bag.

“Hey who was that you were talking to?” Kyung asked, notching my shoulder.

“That was my friend. He was just wondering if the number I gave him worked or not” I answered.

“You gave that creep your number?” I heard Zico ask across from the table.

“Yes I did. Why, you have a problem with that?”

“You’re being so stupid Eun Ji. Why would you just give out your number like that? Now it’ll make you seem like a who likes keeping her legs opened” he put his fork down and gave me a cold stare. The table got quiet.

“What is wrong with you Zico? Why are you being so mean?”

“I’m not being mean. I’m just stating the facts. This attitude of yours is the whole reason why you get bullied in school”

“What attitude? I don’t have an attitude. And last time I checked Seung Ho is a friend of mine” I smirked, getting frustrated. He was embarrassing me in front of all of these people that I barely knew and was making accusations.

“Sure he is. I bet I’ll see you next week giving a at some strip club!” He spat out.

“That’s enough Ji Ho” Kang Gary interjected.

“No I’m not done. When I tell you to stay away from a person who I’ve told you is bad, you just block out your ears and do the opposite. You’re really going to regret the decision you just made. You’re such a filthy . To tell you the truth, I never saw you as a friend. I only saw you as a girl I could hit and pass by but I later found out that you were nothing but a pathetic clingy girl. I was so wrong. You’re as ugly as dog dump. I don’t know why I actually wasted my time on you!” He pushed his chair away from the table and got up, leaving the restaurant. I looked around and caught the people from the nearby table staring and whispering.

I hadn’t even noticed that I was crying. I wiped the tears away and got up. I ran out of the restaurant and headed for the car. I yanked the door opened and closed the door, feeling happy that the windows were tinted. I buried my head in between my knees and began to sob.

“Hey knock knock! Kyung here” I looked up to find Kyung, sitting in the driver’s seat looking ahead.

“What do you want, Kyung?” I asked in between sobs.

“To talk and comfort you. Let’s move to the back seat”

I opened the door and got out. I walked to the side door of the car and got into the back seat where Kyung was already sitting.

“You can lay your head on my shoulder if you want. I’ve done this a couple of times having an older sister and all” He said, smiling to himself. I did as he said and closed my eyes, crying silently.

“Don’t mind what Zico said. He’s just having one of his jealous rage outbursts and you just happened to be the person he picked to explode his anger at” He said as he wrapped his right arm around my shoulder.

“Can I ask you something?” I asked.

“Yeah ”

“Why was he being so mean earlier?” I asked, shifting a bit to get comfy.

“He likes you. Zico likes you and he gets mad when the girl that he likes talks to other guys” He said, leaning his head onto my head. I felt a wave of shock go through my body. Zico likes me. More than just a friend.

“If he likes me, why couldn’t he just say it?”

“I don’t know. Zico has his ways of letting a girl know that he’s interested”

We sat there, enjoying the peace and silence but I still couldn’t forget the words Zico had said.

“Hey you just leave Zico alone. Give him some space to cool off. You and your siblings ride with us okay” I nodded my head and nuzzled my head into his neck, breathing him in.

This is not how I expected my first day of vacation to turn out.

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Some of the things I write on here may sound wrong to you if you're japanese or korean, but i get these facts from my korean and japanese friends. 

Any comments welcome :)

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