Tam

҉~*~҉

 

“No…way…” Andi glared at me violently from her couch and I knew I was a bit exaggerating on my reactions towards the person I am talking with on the other line.

“You’ve got to be kidding me right? Right?!” Angry car engines suddenly blazed from the speakers in full blast as Andi punched the remote with much eagerness. Yes and I remembered that the three of us were just watching her self-proclaimed hubby Brad Pitt show off massive testosterone levels on screen and now she’s watching stupid NASCAR. 

Just great.

I went to the balcony and slid the glass door behind me.  Good now I can talk.

“Seriously now Jongin, you’re coming here for real?” I still couldn’t believe that Jongin, my closest of all my cousins who’s by the way a half-Korean will be sent here to study for an exchange student program. We haven’t seen each other for the longest time and it will be really cool if he’s going to stay with us for a while.

“When?”

“It’s for me to know and for you to find out.”

“What?!”

“Jeez, Tammy you sounded like you missed your Oppa a lot.”

“Shut up. You’re giving me goosebumps.” But it’s true, I missed him a lot.

My whole family used to visit South Korea during the holidays when were still little. He’s the only cousin who’s in the same age bracket as I am and we just get a long pretty well like that.  He’s like an older brother to me.

And yes he loves it when girls call him oppa. Strange Korean festish.

As Jongin continues teasing me by spilling tiny little details regarding his surprise visit over the phone, my eyes were caught by the blinding headlights of a cab that was parked next door. A familiar looking boy whom I fail to recognize other than his pale white skin came out of the cab with grocery bags on hand. I didn’t know I had these stalker tendencies in me until I literally dropped Jongin’s call only to follow the sight of that boy, still trying to figure out and sort this strange familiarity over him.

No, definitely not him.

“Hey…ummm Andi?” I went inside with a train of thoughts in my head. Is it possible…

“D- do they still live next door?”

“Who?”

“Your Korean neighbors…the one we used to play pranks on when we were in sixth grade?”

“Ah yeah, Mr. and Mrs. Do went back to Korea five years ago. Kyungsoo takes care of the house now, you know, the son.” I thought my heart leaped a feet after hearing that name.  “I heard he’s just gonna finish highschool next year and—wait why did you ask anyways?”

“N-nothing.” I averted my gaze away from Andi’s probing ones, trailing off to Jody who’s now glued in front of Andi’s computer.

“Hey, who were you talking to a while ago?”

“My cousin. I think I’ve mentioned him to you before. He’s the one studying at Seoul Arts and he’s coming here for an exchange student program.”

“Oh the halfer.”

“Excuse me?”

“The half-Korean. Seemed to me he’s a very important person. You’ve been selling him to us like hot pancakes the entire week” Andi. She has mastered the art of throwing her sarcasm. I rolled my eyes and ignored the mischief in her smile. “But wait, how about Cayla? You promised someone’s gonna look after her.”

“Well, he didn’t tell me exactly when so he’s probably gonna be there until the end of the month-I don’t know, we’ll see.”

Andi turned to Jody who is busy imitating some sort of cult dance from the computer screen.

“Does Jody know about this?” Andi chuckles.

“Uhh… not ye- hey why are you laughing?”

Andi pats my back and fakes an exaggerated sigh “I think you’re gonna be super BFF’s with her when Mister VIP comes.” I turned back to Jody who’s now attempting a move I just saw from the screen where the artist jumps and double-flips 360 degrees in mid air.

I cringed at the thought.

 

---

 

 

 

Everything seems to be in their rightful place today, so right that for the first time in 6 months our Calculus class finally got cancelled this afternoon.

ing unbelievable.

“What time is it? The signal’s a bit off. Can’t connect with Cayla” Jody waves at me from across the room as she hastily punches random buttons on the router. This is just one of those late afternoons the girls and I would want to crash Andi’s place. This has been our post-school refuge ever since we were kids so it doesn’t seem to bother Andi anymore…I think.

“For the love of god, can you not slaughter my desktop?!” …Well sort of.

Actually, all of us are excited to hear everything from Cayla all the way form Korea. We have been labeled as the deadly quartet (or something like that) even before cliques like of the mother Roseanne and her loyal ducklings became the ‘it’ group of all ‘it’ groups. I know it’s only been a day but without her by our side seems like it has been forever.

“Cayla!” Jody and I flails around after a series of hits and misses on the router, finally we can see our friend on the screen who’s apparently in the same frenzy as us; we almost kiss each others’ faces over our computer screens. Andi, whose busy cleaning her lenses at her desk area follows as she rolls her chair towards the computer and waves at Cayla over the screen.

“Whoah! It’s been only a day and you look good as . The hell happened to you? Too much Kimchi stench got in your system or something?” Andi glares at me after whacking her in the head. Urgh this girl.

“What?”

“ ‘Cause she’s been crying the whole time Andi.” I stated, as a matter of fact.

“What? Why? Are those Korean kids bullying you?!”

“N-no. They’ve been very nice to me actually. I-It’s just-- I really miss you guys.”

Six months without Cayla sure is different.

“Gosh,” Andi breaks in. “Don’t go all too on us now Cay, you’ll be fine.” By that, Andi rolls her way back to her desk and continue prepping her camera lenses instead. Of course I knew the stone-lady’s about to cry.  Everyone knows she’s the closest to Cayla.

 

“Anyways , how’s your first day? Korean boys started hitting on you?” I almost fell off of my seat just by looking at the poor girl’s reaction. Cayla may still be a little timid and awkward to the world but she’s quite the looker.
 

“Actually, tomorrow’s gonna be my first day. Surprisingly I didn’t have a hard time talking to them than what I have expected. I live with other international students in a dormitory and they seem pretty nice. The school head was also kind enough to tour me around campus—oh and Tam,”

“Yeah?”

“I think I met your cousin. Kim JongIn is his name right?”

“You did?! Really?! How?!” It really gets exciting whenever the world narrows down its horizon.

“He was tasked to orient me with some of the rules and regulations at school; the different clubs I might wanna join and pretty much everything that I’ll need. He even gave me his own handy little tips I could use on my first day.”

“Oh that’s him alright.” I couldn’t help but beam at her. I think my cousin complex is unleashed again. “So, how was he?”

“H-huh?”  My smile creeps upwards while Cayla blushes hard.

“So…?”

“Well, I-I don’t know how to say this Tam but uh, your cousin…your cousin he’s-“

“He’s what?”

“He’s uhm…he’s hot.”I couldn’t help but burst in to laughter after hearing Cayla trails off with her insecure obscenities.

“Cayla?!” Jody calls in disbelief.

“What? You should have seen him Jody!” Cayla exclaims, her eyes are about to pop out of the screen.

“Told ya’ ladies. Please don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.”

“Urgh, whatever. Just remember, those Korean guys…they’re up to no good.” Oh god forbid, Jody and her hater tendencies. I wonder if this still has something to do with her ‘Nightmare in Myeondong District trip.

“…they’ll do all sorts of aegyo a.k.a. gay tyness in attempt to woo you, turn your organs into a pile of goo until they have you off their shoes clean. Cay believe me, this happens all the time.”

“With you, I guess.” Andi reacts from across the room. It had me pacing towards her as she deserves a hi-five for that. Jody ignores us as she continues her one-sided rants about Korean boys to the ever so gullible Cayla.

 I settled against Andi’s window instead and mindlessly flipped her latest portfolio. I didn’t realize that my eyes began to drift outside Andi’s window and towards the garden of her neighboring house when---

Oh my god!

It’s him, the guy from last night.

Is that really him? I narrowed my eyes.

Kyungsoo?

Kyungsoo and his family were originally from Korea. Their business turned out to be so successful that they’ve decided to stay here for good. Well that’s what I heard from Andi. They’ve been neighbors for almost four years now and their families became close over the time.

To be honest, I never wanted to admit this to the girls especially to Andi but I’ve been crushing on him since we were like twelve but yet to have decent encounters with the guy other than that very first time I laid eyes on him.