Chapter 14.
Please Stay With Me.
Please Stay With Me | Chapter 14
"JENNIFER!"
My eyes widened as soon as I recognised who screamed out my name. I started hesitating, arguing with my mind to decide whether I should turn around or not. I don't want to face what's going to happen between the five of us, I don't want to be the reason to all the arguments. I don't want it to be the end of my friendship with most of them.
After all, it'll be rude if I don't answer. That was an excuse, the truth was that I originally wanted to turn around but my mind kept coming up with all these reasons to why I shouldn't. My heart thought differently, and so I went along with my conscience. I wanted to do what it want me to do.
I turned around and saw all their eyes on me again. Some looked at me with soft and gentle eyes, some with agressive and jealousy in them. One pair of eyes caught mine the most, I knew it. She looked at me like as if she's disgusted by me, like as if she doesn't want me as a best friend anymore. Looking at her evil stares, I wanted to cry.
I guess this is probably the end of my friendship with Jessica.
I looked at the two boys who called out to me. None of them said anything and so it was pointless for me to stay back. Do they really enjoy playing around with me? Once again, I made another attempt to leave. As soon as I took another step down the staircase, someone unexpected called me.
I was getting annoyed. I turned around with an arrogant attitude and before I could say a word, my head flew to my right, I tightly gripped onto the side supporters, and felt my left cheek stinging. I snapped back to reality and noticed what just happened. I quickly turned to her and glared at her. Everyone else's eyes widened and jaws dropped as they watched us.
"Taeyeon!" Jaejoong shouted.
She ignored his calls and refused to buldge as he tried to get her away from me.
"Get the away from my boyfriend," she said.
Before I could reply or anything, her arms started leaning towards me. Before I knew it, I was pushed and falling back. The time seemed to have been playing one second per minute, everything seemed to move by so slow. I thought I was going to start rolling down the long staircase, but he saved me.
I panicked as I felt myself being tightly held by the waist, I was afraid that my weight was going to push my savior down along the stairs with me. I balanced and straightened myself up. I turned around to look at who saved me. As soon as we met eyes, he softly smiled at me and I returned the smile.
"Do not shout at my fiancee like that!" Kikwang shouted at Taeyeon.
"Fiancee? I like the sound of that," Taeyeon faked her laugh.
Kikwang was about to slap Taeyeon but I stopped him, he looked at me disappointedly. I softly shook my head telling him to stop whatever he was trying to do. He sighed and his expression softened. I smiled and held his hand.
"Let's go," I softly whispered.
He lead me down the stairs and I didn't hesitate a bit to follow. We were slowly reaching the front door. Before we left the house without saying anything else, I turned back to see no one watching us leave. They weren't standing at the top of the stairs looking at us, they were gone. I was slightly disappointed.
-
A week passed since Jaejoong's birthday. I guess Kikwang decided to let everything slide, he didn't bother to ask me what happened and why everything happened. We only had a week left till we're leaving on 16th of February. Kikwang and I decided to go shopping and buy more souvenirs.
We were walking down the streets in the city, there were shops everywhere and our hands were full of bags of presents we bought. We decided to take a break and went to a cafè we walked passed. Kikwang ordered the drinks while I went to the bathroom for a few minutes to fix my make-up. After I was done, I went outside and sat opposite Kikwang across the table. Minutes later, our drinks came.
"Where should we go after this?" I asked.
Kikwang checked his watch and frowned.
"It's getting late, we need to head home," he said.
I pouted. I checked the time on my watch and he was right, it was getting late. It was quarter past five. I was having a lot of fun and I didn't want to go home just yet. We discussed about whether we should have dinner at home, or go out to eat. In the end, we chose to go out to a restaurant.
We left the cafè and waited for a taxi to drive pass. When we caught one, Kikwang threw the bags into the trunk and went inside. Before I went inside the taxi, I remembered something rather important. I told Kikwang to go home first because I needed to go somewhere. I smiled as I waved to the taxi that was driving off.
I headed towards the shopping mall. Kikwang's birthday was coming up on the 30th of March. I growled out of frustration, I didn't know what kind of present to get Kikwang. After walking around for half an hour, I decided to go home. I didn't want Kikwang to be waiting for too long, he might start to assume things. I don't want to come home to be bombarded with loads and loads of questions.
I left the shopping mall and stood in front of the entrance, trying to catch another taxi. Before I could, someone softly tapped me by the shoulder. I raised an eyebrow and slowly turned around. I wasn't expecting this, not expecting this at all.
She suggested that we should sit down somewhere and have a talk. I don't know, but I followed along. After everything she's done to me, I still listened to her. At that moment, she seemed different. She wasn't as cruel like she was that night, she was all nice and stuff. It kinda scared me. I don't know what she's planning.
Slowly, we arrived at Me Ice-cream. I gasped and slowly followed behind her and sat down at a table. We ordered our ice-cream and while waiting, we both kept quiet. I was waiting for her to speak, since she was the one that invited me and wanted to talk.
"I'm sure you've heard of the accident Jaejoong was in two years ago," she said.
"Yeah."
"You want to know why and how he was in an accident?" she asked.
"Wh—"
"BECAUSE OF YOU!" she raised her voice.
I couldn't even finish my question and she started shouting at me. I jumped a little in my seat and looked at her. Her eyes widened and she looked rather angry, when I didn't even do anything. It was then, her answer caught my attention. I was the reason to why Jaejoong was in an accident? I raised an eyebrow at her. She sighed.
"The night when you left for San Francisco was the night when he was in an accident," Taeyeon started. "Because he was so heart brokened, he couldn't concentrate and rushed through red lights, which resulted in his car being crashed by a large truck."
My heart sank to the bottom. I looked around the room to let the truth sink in, I tried not to panic. My breathings became hard and I felt like there wasn't enough oxygen surrounding me. I did my best to calm myself down, I wanted to know more. I waited for her to continue.
"Jessica was lucky.. she survived the accident with minor injuries, but my Jaejoong wasn't that lucky."
"I heard he only had amnesia and lost his memories," I said softly.
"What?" she laughed. "He was in a coma for like what, twenty weeks. When he woke up, he couldn't remember anything. It's all because of you," she said angrily.
"But shouldn't you be happy about that? He's back with you now."
"You think that's something to be happy about?"
"I'd die to be in your position," I whispered, but she still heard.
"He doesn't even give a about me. Whether it's now, or before."
I didn't understand what she was saying. Well, I understand that Jaejoong might not care about her now, but that doesn't mean that he never did before the incident. I still remembered how upset Jaejoong was before I confessed to him. He was telling me how much he missed her, she was the reason to why he kept losing in his basketball matches.
"He never loved me..." she added.
That was a lie. When I was about to tell her everything that Jaejoong told me, she said something that shut me up immediately.
"He loved you, from the beginning."
I laughed at her joke, she never gets sick of playing around with me. She looked at me seriously and my laughs slowly died down. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I couldn't think of the right words to say, my mind wasn't working properly.
"I was stupid. I don't know why I continued going out with him when he was using me," she said sadly.
"For what?"
"To move on from you!" she shouted. "He thought you hated him from the beginning because of all the arguments you guys had, he was afraid to admit his feelings to you. He was afraid of rejection. That's why he dated me because I was the only one who could get his mind off you. But I guess that didn't help, he still liked you and only you..."
"Why... Bu—" I couldn't find the right words to say.
"When I knew the truth, I was hurt and I had no choice but to leave him," she sighed. "You know what? I'm jealous of you," she faked a laugh.
'Why did you have to make it so hard for me to move on from you?'
Jaejoong's question popped up in my mind once again from two years ago. I was still clueless about that question back then and I decided to forget about it. Now, I know the reason to why he said that. I covered my mouth with my hands. At the same time, the ice-cream we ordered arrived. Worst timing ever.
I wanted to cry but I held my tears in. I looked up to the ceiling trying to prevent the tears from sliding and apparently, it worked. When I was sure that I held it in, I looked back down to Taeyeon. She stared at me with disappointment and sighed.
"Tae—"
Before I could even say a word, she stopped me.
"Jennifer, can you promise me one thing?" she asked.
It was surprising. I never thought that the Kim Taeyeon would ask a favour from me. Ever since high school, she was always the popular one while I'm the one that's always pushed behind her, not even recognised by the popular students. It was only until she left, I was acknowledged by everyone.
I hesitated a little, but looking at how sincere she is, I softly nodded once. Once. She softly smiled and continued.
"Can you promise me not to see Jaejoong again?" she asked. "I've lost him once, and I don't want to lose him again."
That was one of the hardest things to do. When I think about it, I know I can do it. I was able to leave him two years ago without turning back, I can do it again...
But the whole reason to why I came back to Korea was to see Jaejoong again, to keep him by my side forever. It'll be pointless if I promise her stupid favour. But then again, Jaejoong lost all his memory and forgot about me. Amnesia can last a life time.
I shouldn't have second thoughts. I'm engaged to Kikwang anyway and I doubt my Mum will cancel the engagement. I looked at Taeyeon once again. Her eyes looked teary and she seems like she was gonna cry. I have no other options.
"Okay, I promise you."
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