Chapter 16
Can you protect Everyone?
Jonghyun POV
Just stay away from her Jong. It’s not like you have a chance with the daughter of the richest man in this nation. But, I just couldn’t forget the way she looked when I leaned in for that kiss. She looked so perfect, her face was innocent as she leaned towards me. No Jong, just leave her alone. I went up to Taemin’s room and crashed on the seat. So many things were running through my mind. I just shut my eyes and fell asleep. Sleep would solve everything right?
“Jong, Jonghyun-” I felt someone poking me. I groaned. I so did not want to wake up right now.
“Yah, Kim Jonghyun! Wake up!” It was Sica. Naturally she would be the one to wake me up.
“Why do you insist on waking me up at this freakin early in the morning Sica?” She scoffed.
“Yah, if I didn’t wake you up, you’d be asleep the entire day. Besides, it’s not early! It’s like noon already!” I jumped out of my seat. Taemin wasn’t there.
“Taemin-” Sica pushed me back down.
“The doc took him for his treatment. Don’t worry Jong, I made sure he was okay before he left.” I smiled at her stupidly. I could always count on her. She playfully punched me.
“Don’t stare at me like that Jong, you look stupid.”
“How come you don’t have school or whatever?” She gave me a look.
“Jong, it’s Saturday, and besides winter break started yesterday.” Yeah! Wait…..
“What about your mom? Where does she think you are?” I asked, concerned. As much as I wanted Sica to stay with me, I didn’t want her to risk everything just to be by my side.
“Don’t worry about it Jong. My mother thinks I’m at violin lessons. Besides, my mom leaves for Prague at like 2:30, so she’ll be gone for an entire three weeks. That’s three weeks we can be with each other and not be bothered by anything,” she said in a blissful voice. She grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the chair.
“Come on Jong. We have to buy you new clothes. You’ve been wearing the same thing for like two days already,” she complained, scrunching her nose. I willingly followed her. We bundled up warmly and braced for the cold weather. Hand in hand, we walked down the street, grabbed a taxi, and ended up at Shinsegae mall.
“Sica, come on, I don’t mind going somewhere else. This place is really expensive.” I looked at the mall doubtfully.
“I’ve got it covered. Besides, I wanted to buy something for myself too,” she said with a smirk. I began to protest, but she just grabbed my hand and dragged me into the mall. There were so many new things that I’ve never even seen in my entire life, and the prices were unbelievable. How the hell is one T-shirt $48? Sica pulled me into a big-name brand store and called someone.
“Ahjusshi? Are you here?” A small, old man with a genuine face walked over to us.
“Oh, Sica. It is so good to see you. I take it your mother is not with you.” Sica warmly embraced the small man.
“No, I came with my best friend today Ahjusshi. We need to find some clothes for him. Do you think it’s possible Ahjusshi?” she asked doubtfully. I nudged her, giving her a questioning look.
“Yah, what are you talking about? I’m considered very good looking. You know the girls at Taemin’s school all swoon at the sight of me,” feeling very proud of myself. Sica pushed my head.
“Yah, they’re like what, fifth grade girls? They swoon at the sight of any guy that’s not in elementary school. How can you not even know that?” Ahjusshi laughed at our childish banter.
“I can see you too are very close. Perhaps even more than just best friends?” he questioned coyly. Both Sica’s and my eyes widened as we protested furiously.
“Are you kidding me Ahjusshi?”-“Ahjusshi, that does not really make sense-”; “Why would I-” Ahjusshi raised a hand to stop us.
“You come with me,” he said pointing to me. I followed Ahjusshi to one of the dressing rooms. He took my measurements and brought me a few different outfits.
“Put this on and then go show Sica.” With that said, he closed the curtains and left. I examined the clothes. $245! I poked my head out of the dressing room.
“Sica, I’m not wearing this.”
“Yah, just wear it. We’re not leaving until we have at least two new outfits for you.” She gave me one of her glares. I slowly slipped back into the dressing room. The first outfit was a pair of black jeans, a simple black tee, a gray peacoat, and a knitted beanie. I shyly stepped out of the dressing room. I wasn’t used to wearing such expensive clothes. A simple hoodie and jeans were fine for me. I didn’t know Sica insisted on doing this.
“So, um…..do I look okay?” I asked, kinda sorta embarrassed.
“Yah, Kim Jonghyun, daebak!” she said in her usual sarcastic tone.
“Aish,” I turned around and angrily headed towards the dressing room.
“Anniya, you look amazing!” she said with a soft smile. I felt my anger dissolve and smiled back at her. Unconsciously, I leaned towards her until our foreheads touched.
“Do I really look that great?” I whispered seductively.
“Ye-a-a,” she said, her voice shaking a little bit. She closed her eyes and leaned closer as I did the same.
Jessica POV
I could feel his lips less than a millimeter away from mine, until they finally touched. His lips were soft as he gently kissed me. I slowly wrapped my arms around him as he embraced my waist. When he kissed me, it felt like heaven finally came on earth. Soon, I felt him pull away. I whined in complaint.
“Clingy aren’t we?” he said with a smirk before giving me a short sweet kiss on the lips.
“You wish. Come on. I like this on you. We’re going to buy it.” His face changed to surprise.
“Yah, I can’t afford this.”
“Yah, who said you were going to buy it? I’m going to pay for it. Besides, I didn’t properly repay you after you saved me from that weird guy.”
“Andwae! Look, you already bought me chicken. That was plenty good enough. I don’t need this,” he said, gesturing to the clothes he was wearing.
“Listen, think about it this way. I’m not buying for you, I’m buying it because I can’t stand to see you wearing that same hoodie and jeans every single day.” I aegyo-ishly grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the counter.
“Ahjusshi, we’re going to buy this whole outfit. How much is it?” I began to take out my wallet, but Ahjusshi stopped me.
“Sica, business is good these days. Just take the clothes.” I started to refuse at first, but thought better of it. Instead I bowed my head in thanks.
“Kamsahamnida Ahjusshi.” I bowed again deeply before pretending to leave. Ahjusshi waved at me and went back into the back of the store.
“Yah, are you really not going to pay for this?” I shook my head. After I made sure that Ahjusshi was not anywhere within seeing distance, I took out my money and left it on the counter. Jonghyun seemed slightly surprised, so I explained on the way out.
“Once Ahjusshi sets his mind on something, he won’t change it. Besides, if I had insisted on paying for it, we would have been there for at least four hours,” I said with a laugh. We walked together aimlessly hand in hand, not really going anywhere until I saw the ice-cream store.
“ICE-CREAM!” I shouted like a kid. Jonghyun ruffled my hair. Together we ran to the ice cream stand and gazed longingly at the many different flavors.
“Jong, what do you want?” He looked serious while he made his decision, until he finally came upon the idea to have chocolate ice cream. Really, all that thinking just to decide on chocolate ice cream? He looked to me, waiting for me to make my decision.
“I’ll have cheesecake ice cream with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and pie crust.” The lady at the counter nodded as she began to make my order. As we began to eat our ice cream, I saw Jonghyun pouting at me.
“Yah, what’s wrong with you?” He gave me a glare, which was a total fail by the way.
“Your ice cream,” he said simply. At first I didn’t realize what he was saying, but I soon caught on. He was pissed that my ice cream was better than his. Oh my God!! He is such a freakin kid. I took a big scoop and gave it to him.
“Ah!” He happily opened his mouth and ate it.
“MMM! This is good,” he said while taking my ice cream from my hands and replacing it with his plain chocolate ice cream. I whacked his arm.
“Yah! Kim Jonghyun! Give me back my ice cream!” He shook his head, mumbling something about my ice cream being better than his.
“Kim Jonghyun, if you read the sign at the ice cream shop, you can see that it says create your own ice cream. It’s not my fault you can’t read,” I mumbled the last part, but it seemed like he heard it because his eyes became as wide as saucers!
“Yah! You’re going to regret saying that Jung Sooyeon!” he yelled, as we ran around the mall. It was like a picture perfect scene. Jonghyun running to catch me, while I ran away, but both of us acting as if there was nobody else but us in that moment.
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