Chapter Three: 'Falling' For You

After realizing to himself that the other members were out to find out why he kept on skipping out on them, Ilhoon decided to attend the rest of their weekend practices, only to douse their suspicions. Of course, there were scarce moments when he was late or absent, but those times are not so noticeable anymore. They eventually stopped grilling him about the issue, seeing as the boy clearly won’t say a word more. But Ilhoon stopped doing one thing: he was never caught saying things out loud during his phone calls again.

On Sunday, band pratice was over for the day and Minhyuk was bored, so decided to visit the comic store he and Eunkwang always visited every weekend. He wanted to read a new series of comics, but there was no one he could hitch to accompany him; everyone else had make-up or extra classes, except for Hyunsik. So the dark-haired boy decided to tag along, saying he could use a new book or two. The boys met up on the subway and walked together all the way to the store.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

In the store, Minhyuk went into one aisle, and Hyunsik went to another. As Hyunsik was browsing through the new titles, he didn’t see a person huddled on the floor and tripped over them. The stack of books beside the person fell over and Hyunsik fell on all fours over the person itself. They stared at each other for a few moments until the person—fine, it’s a girl—cleared . Hyunsik stiffened and immediately got off her.

“I’m sorry!” Hyunsik apologized profusely. He helped the girl stack back her books, trying to hide his reddening face. He noticed that the girl had short black hair under her black hoodie, and she had a look of pride a rich business man’s daughter has.

“No, it’s alright,” she said confidently. “I’ll handle this, thank you. And next time, don’t go around falling over random girls, or people in general. It’s sort of a turn-off.”

The girl smiled briefly and stood up with her books in her arms. Hyunsik kept looking after her until she disappeared into another aisle. He would have gone after her when Minhyuk suddenly popped out of nowhere.

“I got my stuff. You got anything?”

Hyunsik took a few seconds to respond. His cheeks were still rather pink. “Wh-what?”

“I said, I’m ready to go. What’s up? You look like you’ve seen a beautiful ghost,” said Minhyuk with a sheepish grin. “I’d say you saw a pretty girl but your expression doesn’t exactly match.” Minhyuk nudged Hyunsik, hoping he’d get the joke, but the latter remained quiet.

“She felt solid enough, though,” said Hyunsik slowly, a hundred thoughts racing through his mind. “But she looked so familiar…”

Minhyuk raised an eyebrow at the younger boy. “What do you mean? Like, you’ve seen her before or something?”

“Yeah, but I can’t remember exactly where, or when… or how…” Hyunsik was frowning now, clearly deep in thought. Minhyuk waited a while for him to explain some more, but he didn’t. Minhyuk lost his patience and grabbed Hyunsik’s forearm, leading him away.

“Alright. Come on, lover boy,” the older boy said. “If you’re meant to see her again, you will. Don’t stress about it. Man, it sure is the first time I’ve seen you flustered like that.”

“I’m what?”

“Flustered, see?” said Minhyuk, and pinched Hyunsik’s right cheek. “Your face is red like a cherry tomato.”

“It… It is?”

Minhyuk laughed out loud. “Aigoo! Is our Hyunsik in love at first sight?”

Hyunsik’s jaw dropped, but he grew redder. “Wh-what? No I’m not! Jeez. I just saw the girl, man. Hyung, I mean. And she’s pretty and all, but what really bothers me is how familiar she looked.”

The older boy still didn’t look convinced, but to end the issue and to get on home, he let it slide. “Fine, whatever. You work on that on the way back.”

Hyunsik let himself be dragged by his hyung, but he never stopped thinking about the girl in the bookstore: black hoodie over her head, fair skin, long legs, and uniquely-shaped lips. Where did I see such a girl before? Hyunsik was almost sure he has seen her before, or someone who looked like her, but he couldn’t point at when or where. And it almost drove him nuts.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Meanwhile, back in the bookstore, it was already 7 PM, but the girl in the hoodie hasn’t left yet. The jingle of the bells signaled the arrival of another customer. She did not look up from her book, not until a shadow fell over her.

“I knew I’d find you here. It’s nice of you to remember this place.”

The girl looked up and recognition crossed her face. She just went back to reading. “It’s nice that you haven’t forgotten. Don’t you have practice tonight or something?” Let’s hope she didn’t intend to sound bitter; unfortunately, she did.

Ilhoon sighed and sat himself across her. “It has been over since lunchtime, and I wanted to see you, to apologize. I haven’t been myself around you lately because it’s kind of a bad time. We’re preparing for something big and you suddenly came back out of the blue. I really want to spend time with you because I missed you so much, but you have to understand that I’m not just any guy anymore. You have to understand that I’ve grown busier since you were last here. After all, sophomore year is a very busy year. You should know.”

The girl closed her book and sighed. “Fine, I understand. I’m sorry if I have been too pushy, but I missed you a lot too. Just promise to spend more time with me after whatever you’re preparing for is done, okay?”

“I promise,” said Ilhoon and smiled. “Actually, I could take you out tonight. Got any places you want to see?”

“Anywhere will do right now. But I’ve got a request: introduce me to your friends.”

Ilhoon’s eyes grew wide. “What? Why?” he groaned. “I mean, why are you so intent on meeting them?”

“You talk about them a lot and I think I deserve to know who you keep babbling about,” she said with a shrug. “Why? Are you ashamed of me?”

“No, that’s not it…”

“I saw two of your group come here, just this morning. One of them was one of the boys who came to the house almost a week ago, and the other had the most adorable eyesmile. I want to meet everyone else. I’m not going to go anywhere with you if you don’t do as I ask.”

Ilhoon put two fingers over his temple. Minhyuk hyung and Hyunsik hyung, why did you have to come here out of all other times? “You are very persistent, you know that?”

The girl smiled and stuck her tongue out mockingly. “Thank you~”

“Aish, whatever,” muttered Ilhoon. “Come on, I’ll go buy you some ddeokbokki. Could you handle spicy stuff?”

“Sure. I’m still Korean, you know. Half of my life was spent here.”

He and the girl stood up, and Ilhoon slung an arm around her shoulder and kissed her hair as they walked out.

“You really are full of surprises, aren’t you?” he said. “You’re lucky I’m in an agreeable mood tonight.”

“Of course I am. You should know that by now,” she replied and wrapped an arm around his waist.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-