17
Love Is...
Chapter Seventeen
We arrived at Frock Emporium at eleven thirty in the morning.
The store was filled with customers that we had to go inside Chaerin's personal room.
I sat on an office chair and looked around the room.
The walls were filled with posters of different people, foreign people.
"Are those your friends?" I asked.
Chaerin chuckled. "No, Minah. They're famous fashion designers from all around the world."
"Oh, sorry," I bit my lip and looked down.
She smiled. "Um, I'll go get your dress already, wait here okay?"
I smiled and nodded.
Chaerin left the room and I stood up and looked around.
There were pictures of Kai, their parents, Chaerin's boyfriend, her friends and me.
I'm really glad because Chaerin treats me like I'm her real sister.
When my Mother died, she was the one who came to visit me everyday together with Kai, just to make sure I was doing fine.
When Myungsoo left, she was the one who cried with me until I finally got to move on. And I am glad because she will be my real sister, soon.
The door opened.
Chaerin and one of her employees were holding a long, huge pink box.
On top of the box, Frock Emporium was printed in white font color.
They placed it on the couch and I stood up to take a look at it when Chaerin held my arm. "Oops," she said, wiggling her index finger in front of my face. "that's a no-no."
I gave her a confused look.
She let go of my arm and stood in front of me. "You are not allowed to open that box unless it's Tuesday already."
"But, why? I won't touch it or anything, I just want to see how it looks."
"You really wanna see your dress?" She asked, her brows raised.
I nodded enthusiastically.
"Then wait for Tuesday."
My shoulders deflated.
"Hana, bring this in the car please." She said as she handed her the car keys.
She turned to me. "Let's eat?"
I nodded. "Arasso,"
...
We entered Sariwon and sat on the far end of the restaurant.
"They serve the best Korean barbecue in here." Chaerin said, opening the menu.
I opened mine and we started to order.
"How are you? Kai said you have coughs and colds." She asked.
"I'm feeling better. Halmeoni gave me some medicine and it's pretty effective." I replied.
She nodded slowly.
"You know," She looked at me straight in the eyes. "he told me something."
I looked at her.
"We had a personal talk the other day. I asked him something about you."
I continued to listen.
"He told me that he thinks there's something that's bothering you. He's dying to know, but he's afraid to ask. He thinks that you're not trusting him anymore. According to him, you've changed. A lot."
I swallowed.
Everything that Chaerin said was true. All true.
He was the one who knew all my secrets before.
If something kept on bothering me I'll tell him every single bit of it. I trusted him with everything, because he's my best friend and that's what best friends do.
I've changed, I know.
Maybe I'm just afraid to face the fact that I really am not the old Minah anymore. And I don't know why.
I always don't know why.
"Kai is your best friend. He's aware of what you are feeling. And it's hard for someone to just know what you're feeling, without even knowing the reason behind it." She continued.
She wasn't scolding me.
She was telling it in a very calm, sisterly way.
I wanted to tell Chaerin about what I really feel, but something inside me just wants to keep everything hidden.
It was telling me that this was my problem and I should learn to solve it by myself.
I bet you know the feeling when you're filled with thoughts in your head, but you just can't let it out.
Maybe because you don't have the right words to explain it.
Or maybe because you're just afraid to.
In my case, it was both.
"I know I shouldn't be meddling with your problems. It's up to you if you want to talk to Kai about it. I'm just saying, you are best friends. You should not be afraid to trust each other." She smiled and rubbed my hand with her thumb.
...
Chaerin helped me carry my dress inside the house.
"Thanks Chaerin unnie, so much." I flashed a smile.
She smiled back. "You're always welcome. So, I'll see you guys on Tuesday?" She asked.
Halmeoni, Sungjae, and I nodded.
"Thank you so much, Chaerin." Halmeoni held her hands and smiled.
"No problem Halmeoni."
"I have to go now, I still have to go somewhere. Bye, Halmeoni! Bye Sungjae baby!" He kissed Sungjae on the cheek, then she looked at me and said, "Minah, think about what I told you earlier, okay?"
I gave her a wry smile. "Yeah,"
Chaerin waved goodbye and left.
Sungjae sat beside the pink box. "Okay, let's now open-"
"No!" I grabbed his hand before he can open it.
Halmeoni and Sungjae looked at me, confused.
"Why?" He asked.
I sat beside him. "Chaerin unnie said that I should not open this box unless it's Tuesday already." I explained.
They became more confused.
Now, it was Halmeoni's turn to ask why.
"I don't know, too." I shrugged. "But that's what she said. I think we should just do it, whether we like it or not." I pursed my lips.
Kai's POV
I was lying on my bed in my room doing absolutely nothing.
It was boring as heck.
Suddenly, someone knocked on my door.
I stood up and opened it lazily. It was Naeun, our maid.
She was the youngest maid in this house.
"I'll just vacuum a little, is it okay?" She asked.
I nodded and dove in my bed again.
She started fixing the vacuum while singing some old Korean song.
I was thinking of something to do for Minah this coming Tuesday, but my mind won't function.
So I decided to seek help from Naeun.
"You have a boyfriend, right?" I asked.
Naeun seemed confused. She looked at me with huge eyes and pointed to herself. "Me?"
I was still looking at the ceiling. "Yes, of course. Who else could it be?"
"Oh," she nodded. "Yes. Why?"
I sighed. "What's the sweetest thing he's ever done for you?" I looked at her and her cheeks suddenly went red.
"Um,"
"I find it sweet whenever he sings for me. He's a member of a band so he sings really well." She said.
"Sing?"
I can sing.
Believe it or not, but I am not a pro at it. Not as pro as Minah is.
But something is telling me that singing for her was a good idea.
"Yes." She nodded then stopped fixing the vacuum and looked at me with those big eyes again. "Oh my gosh are you going to do this for Miss Pretty?!"
I shrugged.
"I'm sure she's going to be really happy if you sing for her. You should do it! You should really, really do it!" She said cheerfully.
"Okay, okay. You can go back to your vacuum business now."
I thought about it for a moment, then dialed my friend's number.
"Hey Baek, you busy?"
"Nope, why?"
"Good. I'll be at Sehun's. Go there, we need to talk about something."
"Okay,"
I pressed the 'End Call' button and stood up from my bed.
"Can you just clean the room after I leave?" I asked and Naeun immediately went out of my room with her vacuum cleaner.
I got inside the bathroom and took a bath.
...
"I arrived here fifteen minutes ago." Baekhyun said.
He brought Kyungsoo, my other friend, with him.
"Yeah, you're late again. The last time we saw each other you were twenty minutes late." Kyungsoo added.
"You should be called, Mister Late." Sehun made quotation marks in the air and the three of them laughed.
"I guess the both of you have Baekhyun's comedian disease now." I muttered.
"What?" Baekhyun asked.
"Nothing," I said.
I will be needing their help so now isn't the right time to fight with them.
"I need you guys to do me a favor."
They looked at me.
"I'm planning to sing for Minah at the engagement party."
Baekhyun bursted out laughing.
Sehun and Kyungsoo looked at him.
"Bless this guy." Sehun shook his head slowly.
"Sorry, sorry, okay, I'm okay now." He exhaled then looked at me. "You are planning to sing for Minah, and?"
"And believe it or not, I will be needing your help."
He narrowed his eyes at me. "Jesus, Jongin, what have you eaten?"
I sighed and glared at him. "Come on, enough with the nonsense. I am ing serious about this. The party's on Tuesday!" I tried to explain.
"Okay," Baekhyun shrugged. "So how do we start?"
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