excuse

the early strawberry catches the girl

 

READER'S POV
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While we waited for the lesson to start and while I was getting more and more eager for that, I tried to make my joy as obvious as possible without making my other feelings that open to Taemin as well. I was so bad at hiding my emotions that it was a miracle he hadn't already noticed the way I lovingly looked at him whenever we were together - but as it seemed to me he hadn't and secretly I wanted to keep it that way. Especially today – if he found out through me inadvertibly doing or saying anything stupid, there would be no teacher to distract him from it. Or – distract me from it if he was to reject it somehow which I was pretty sure of. 

He was beautiful, he was smart, he was funny and what made him most loveable to me is that he was gentle in everything he did. The voice coming from his plump, smooth lips was soothing and I loved listening to him whenever he had to read something out loud at school, his ability to make everything sound graceful yet interesting was envied by a lot of people and still nobody dared to hate him. He was such a strong and straightforward personality but seemed so vulnerable and fragile at times – he was like a butterfly to me and I guess that's why I fell for him.

But sadly, I knew quite well that I wasn't the only one who saw him like that. He always appeared to be overlooking it out of modesty, but the girls were lining up at his desk at school just to ask him stupid questions that he would always answer honestly - even if he didn't seem to be interested in further conversations and started talking to his male classmates right after having answered everything. Either he wasn't comfortable with girls or – and the idea of that made me gulp – he already had a girlfriend.

Minhee-ah, are you listening?”, Taemins voice suddenly woke me from my trance. I didn't notice that I had focussed on the window the whole time. I abruptbly jerked my head to face him but I still felt like the worst listener in the world. I blinked at him bashfully. If he had been talking to me, I must have come across as someone who actually didn't give a damn about him if our teacher wasn't present – after all, this was the first time that we were alone for more than just 2 minutes or less and I had already drifted away. “M-mianhae, Taemin-ah”, I stuttered, trying to gain my confidence back, “you were saying - ?” His lips curled into something that wasn't a smile nor a frown, it just looked terribly resignated. My assumptions must have been right.

He ran his hands over his tighs as if he needed to brush the words I didn't hear away from him because I just made them useless. “Ah, nothing, really”, he said and then got up from the piano bench. “I'm going to ask the secretary whether Ahn-sungsaenim is even here today or not. It's already a quarter past 5.” I took a look at my watch to make sure he wasn't just looking for an excuse to leave, then nodded but gave my best to make it look like I found it completely unnecessary, but I guess he had already chosen to picture me as not-caring-anyway. When he had left, I sunk bank into the soft material of my seat and groaned to myself.
If this was how girls normally treated him, it was no wonder he preferred to keep his distance.

TAEMIN'S POV
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The last thing I saw her do was nod, then I left the room without shutting the door behind me. I didn't know if I was angry or just resigned, but either way - the fact that she didn't really listen to me was on the edge of driving me crazy and I didn't really know why.

While I was strutting down the hallway to get to the secretary's office, I involontarily thought my current feelings over. I knew that I couldn't return to her still looking like she insulted me when she didn't even do anything – but wasn't that the exact point? We had been alone for the first time in many, many piano lessons. Normally I was late or just in time so they had already started practising and after the lesson we both had to hurry to catch the last bus home – but in different directions. Plus when we were at school, instead of lingering around my desk like some of her friends she barely talked to me at all. Actually I shouldn't be upset. We weren't that close.

But something about her not talking to me made me feel unwanted. Like she was the only person that I cared about having a conversation with, the only person that I'd want to see look back at me and smile. I gulped. These thoughts were new to me. I already knew that feelings to go with them, but I guessed that I should have grappeled with them before it was too late to even have them – she obviously wasn't interested in being as close to me as I wanted to be to her and I realized that my angriness was all my fault. How could she know about my feelings without me telling her? She propably didn't have any idea. She propably hasn't ever noticed the way I looked at her whenever we were together.

When I walked into the secretary's office I felt more stupid than ever. I shook my head a little to get some streaks of hair out of my sight, then slightly leaned onto the desk our headmaster's secretary was sitting behind. “Hi”, I greeted. She looked at me and put her glasses back on. “What can I do for you?”, she asked. “Is Ahn-sungsaenim here today? She was supposed to give Park Minhee and me piano lessons but she isn't here yet.” She nodded and then seemed to browse a table on her computer's screen for a minute, then she frowned. “She's not here today. I'm afraid we forgot to tell you.” I opened my mouth to say something then awkwardly scratched the back of my neck. “Oh”, I mumbled, “okay. Then I guess we'll just leave for today.”

Then she suddenly grimaced with concern and got up from her seat. I wondered why because I hadn't said anything to make her worry, but then I realized that my expression must have given me away. But before I could say anything to explain myself, she had already picked up a small paring of strawberries from the desk of her collegue. “Here”, she said, “look at them as an excuse.” I almost laughed. Did I look that pathetically downcast? I put up my hands in polite rejection but she insisted on me taking them. “It was my collegue's birthday today and she got one too many of these parings. I was going to give them away anyways.” I sighed capitulating then bowed thankfully. “Thank you very much. Have a nice day.”

She smiled at me one last time before I headed off to the piano classroom once more. Maybe, I thought to myself while having a closer look at the ripe, bright red strawberries that I was carrying with me, maybe I wouldn't just go home now.

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pumpkinprincess
13 subscribers... I think I'm gonna have to update this pretty soon you guys :D

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silversorbet
#1
Update soon!!!
silversorbet
#2
I love it!!! Taemin is such a cutie pie!!!
Key_Lover16
#3
Please update soon i love it hehe <3
YesungLover101 #4
Oo~ I like it!!
Thank you!!!!!!