Chapter 21

Dara’s POV

After hearing Tabi’s story, I thought of how lame my reason for crying was.  It got me thinking real hard if I should really tell him. He didn’t ask me again though.  I always thought of him as a complicated person, but I would have never thought his life was this complicated…and sad.  After telling his story, Tabi was just silent.  I felt quite happy too that he trusted me with such personal story.  After being drowned in human silence and cricket sounds, he finally looked at me as if telling me that it’s my turn.  I was flustered because he just sat there and stared at me.  Screw it.  I’ll tell him, anyway.

“Yah, was that why you bawled your eyes out?  Because you saw your one-sided love reunite with his lover? Daebak!”  he teased and laughed at me after I told my story.  I stomped my feet and stood up.

“I knew it wasn’t a good idea to tell you!”  I was about to walk away when he grabbed my hand.

“Aniya, aniya.  Mianhae…noona.”  He said while sounding like he was trying to stop his laughter. I glared at him and he finally stopped laughing.  He pulled my hand, asking me to sit down.

“Eyy, what’s wrong with you?  I was just teasing.”  He stood up and went upstairs.  I followed him with my eyes as he went in his room.

What the?  He’s just going to leave like that?

He came back with two cans of orange juice in his hands, and tossed me one.  It was really cold.

“where did this come from?”

“Me.”

“You really think I’m stupid?”

“I’m just kidding.  I have a bar fridge in my room.”

“Really?  Since when?”

“Ever since I moved in.. you’ve been in and out of my room and you never noticed?”

“Yah! I’ve only went in there once… or maybe twice..when you were drunk… and I had to drag you all the way up –“ shouldn’t have said that.

The scene from that night suddenly appeared in my head and there was awkward silence.  His eyes widened too and he stopped teasing.  Did he remember the same thing I just did?

He cleared his throat, had a sip of his orange juice and turned the tv on, as I pretended to be busy with some other things in the kitchen.

“Noona” Tabi finally broke the silence.

“Ne?” Why am I suddenly formally talking to him?  And it seems like he’s been comfortably calling me noona a lot tonight too.  Is he finally getting the hang of it?

“How did you end up at the cinema, in the first place?”  Tabi inquired.  I wasn’t sure if he asked because he really wanted to know or if it was just to somehow get rid of the awkward atmosphere.

“Ah, that.  It was ‘cause I didn’t have my house keys with me, and I was caught in a very unwanted situation earlier today, too.”  I kept talking, though I could have just stopped when I already told him that I didn’t have my keys, but somehow, I wanted to get this out of my chest.

“So something happened before the Jiyong-Chaerin incident?”

“Ne.  I met Seungri today.  I was at a café earlier today and incidentally, it was Seungri’s.”

“Seungri? Ah! Your younger ex-boyfriend who broke your heart.”  He teased.  I could tell he was silently laughing even though I could only see his back.

“He wants to get back with me.”

“Jinjja??” His voice raised in surprise, as he stood and turned to me with an unbelieving expression on his face.

I nodded to confirm.  He walked towards me and sat on one of the dining chairs.

“Noona, that kid seriously needs a good beating.”

“Wae?”

“You’re asking me why?  Didn’t he dump you before?  Look, didn’t you say you cried because you saw Jiyong and Chaerin happily together today?  If Chaerin is back with Jiyong then it means she dumped Seungri.  It only makes sense that he wants to get back with you. Ain’t I right?”

“Omo.  I guess you’re right.  I didn’t even think of that.” He pointed at his head and proudly smirked.  I gave him a disgusted look and continued explaining.

“But he said that they weren’t even dating, to start with.  He told me that Chaerin was the only one who thought that way, and that he only looked at her as a friend.  He even admitted that he was wrong that he took me for granted.  The proud Seungri admitted he was wrong.  That was a first.”

“And you believed his words?” he looked at me as if waiting for my answer, but I didn’t say anything.

“Unbelievable! Do you really like him that much, or are you really just a babo ahjumma?  It just doesn’t make any sense that you even have the slightest thought of believing him even after he played you.”

Tabi’s reaction was totally uncalled for.  I couldn’t understand why he reacted the way he did.  Perhaps, he experienced in the past what I’m experiencing now, I could never guess unless he tells me.  He has got me thinking, maybe I really am babo, but definitely not an ahjumma.  He poured the last ounce of his orange juice into his mouth and fled to his room without another word.

While I was watching tv, I received a message from Jiyong.

“Noona, I know this is sudden, but can we meet tomorrow? ^^”

I thought he might just want to talk to me about how happy he is, now that they’re back together.  It took me a while before I could respond to him because I didn’t know what to reply in the first place.  I knew I was not ready to get hurt again, but I decided to meet him anyway, for the last time. And to give myself and my feelings for him a closure.

“Sure ^^.. when and where?~”

“When I get off from work… 3pm? Mango Six.”

“OK >.<’”

After exchanging text messages with him, I didn’t realize that I was continuously sighing.  I felt the urge to tell someone to get it off my chest somehow, so I went upstairs.  I contemplated behind Tabi’s door whether I should knock and talk to him, or just talk to the mirror in my room.  I knocked anyway and he opened his door almost immediately but not wide enough so I could easily get through.  He was blocking the way, but because of my slim figure, I was able to easily slip through his door.  I pretended to look around while fiddling with my fingers, thinking about how to start a conversation again.

“Oh, so there’s your bar fridge.”  I lamely pretended to be interested.

“So?  Is that why you came here?” he looked at me as if scanning through me.

“Actually…” before I knew it, I found myself sitting comfortably on his bed.

“Seunghhunah… Jiyong texted me.”

Tabi was still standing by the door with his arms crossed and just staring at me with a straight face, not saying a word.

“He said he wanted to meet up tomorrow.”

“And I’m guessing you excitedly said you’d meet him, and now you can’t wait.”

“Of course not!  I’m not excited at all.  It even took me a while to reply because I was still thinking whether to go or not.”

“And?”

“And… I decided to go.”

Tabi gave me an ‘I knew it’ expression, so I defended myself before he decides to throw me out of his room because of my nonsense.

“But I have my reason, you know.  I decided to meet him for the last time.  To give myself a closure.”

I stared at him, waiting for a reaction.  After a moment of silence, all he said was, “Well, good luck.  Now, if you don’t mind, I really want to rest now.”  I didn’t know if that was the reaction I wanted from him, but I wasn’t really sure what kind of reaction to expect in the first place, so I got out from his room and went in to my own.