Chapter 9: Irie’s POV

“Spicy shrimp chips, onion rings, Kkokkal Cones, and Homerun Balls,” I repeated to myself as I walked down the aisles of the convenience store.

I located the three savory snacks with ease, but the same couldn’t be said for the Homerun Balls. Usually, they were in a tall stack at the end of the sweets aisle, but for some reason, today, there were bags of Chocopies were occupying the space. Of the four snacks, Homerun Balls were Darren’s absolute favorite, so I had to get them.

Darren was working late, yet again. This time, it was because employee evaluations were coming up at his company and he was taking on additional work and putting in extra hours to leave a good impression on his boss. Last night, he had so much to do that he couldn’t come home. Instead, he spent the night sleeping on the couch in his office. When I talked to him this morning on the phone, it didn’t sound like he rested very well, so after I was finished with work for today, I decided to visit him at his office bearing snacks, coffee, and a fresh set of clothes. It would be the perfect pick-me-up to help him get through the rest of today.

“Found them!” I cheered to myself quietly, once I spotted the distinct neon green packaging Homerun Balls came in.

I picked up one package of the original chocolate flavor and one package of the limited edition Camembert cheese flavor to round out the collection of snacks, quickly went up front to pay, and then set off to find a coffee shop near Darren’s office to pick up a Caffè Americano – his favorite drink and the last thing on my list of things to get for him.

“May I help you?” the receptionist asked when I came up to the front desk.

“I’m here to see Kwon Donghyun,” I replied, providing her with Darren’s Korean name.

“That’s odd. Mr. Kwon doesn’t have any client meetings scheduled for this time,” the receptionist said with a puzzled look on her face. “What’s your name?”

“Chae Aeri,” I said.

She paused for a couple of seconds after I told her my name. Her eyes then widened and dropped open in surprise.

“Wait, you’re his girlfriend?” she then asked.  

“Yes,” I answered slowly.

How was she able to recognize me? I’ve never seen this woman before in my life. Better question – of all things, how did she know that I was Darren’s girlfriend? I would understand if she thought I was his cousin or a friend. But girlfriend? She must’ve gotten really lucky with her guess or she was really good at reading people, because at first glance most people wouldn’t be able to determine that about a person.

“Well, you just missed him,” she said. “He’s right now at dinner with some of the members in our company’s California office. They’re here for the week.”

“Oh,” was all I could manage to say in response.

“Are those for him?” she asked, referring to the paper shopping bag I was holding in one hand that contained Darren’s clothes and the snacks I bought and the tray I had in my other hand that held two Caffè Americanos – one hot for him and one iced for me.

The second Americano was bought with the thought that Darren and I could enjoy our coffee together whilst catching up and under the assumption that he would still be in his office when I came.  

“I can hold onto those for you and give them to him when he returns,” the receptionist then offered.

“That’d be really nice,” I smiled as I handed the bag over to her.

“Keep the coffee though, since it’ll probably be cold by the time he comes back,” she added. 

“Thank you so much,” I said, bowing my head as a sign of gratitude.

“You’re welcome,” she said. “I’ll tell him you came by.”

After thanking her again, I turned quickly on my heels and headed straight for the elevator. I felt humiliated. Darren’s office receptionist knew more about the intricacies of his daily schedule than I did. I’m his girlfriend. Shouldn’t I be the one to know everything like that?

Right when I got in my car, I jammed my keys in the ignition and was about to turn on the engine and finally head home for the day, when my phone’s text message tone went off. Thinking that it was Darren, I reached over to my purse and hurriedly began rummaging around in there, until I came across the familiar oblong body of my phone.

My heart sank a little when I saw that Darren hadn’t texted me, but my frown soon turned upside down when I saw who had texted me instead.

“What are you up to now?” Simon’s message read.

“Surprisingly, nothing,” I wrote back.

Ever since we got dinner together after the Calvin Klein event a few weeks back, Simon has become one of my really good friends – one of my best friends even. Whenever I see him, I feel like I’m looking at the male version of myself. I’ve never met a person who I’ve felt so in sync with before. The way that we both see and process the world is so similar, which allows us to have the most incredible conversations. Most of our talks run into the early hours of the mornings because once we start, both of us end up losing track of the time and we end up talking for hours. But even though we talk for hours, it never feels like enough. I just want to continue talking to him and never have to stop.

“Come by the dorm!” Simon then replied. “We’re ordering dinner from the sushi restaurant that opened up down the street. You can help me judge authenticity.”

Well, this definitely beats my initial dinner plans – eating yudofu, alone in my apartment.

“I’ll head over now then,” I sent in response. “Thanks for the invite.”

Will Darren be happy when he hears that I've been hanging out with Simon again? Probably not, but honestly, at this point, I could care less about what he thinks. There’s no harm in me hanging out with DMTN this week. I’m probably not even going to be the only girl there. Most likely, Intae and Donglim’s girlfriends will be there too. Plus Daniel, my cousin, is going to be there. He, of all people, will make sure that nothing happens, not like anything would happen in the first place. Would Darren even care if anything were to happen anyway?

Darren was the one who told me to make more friends here in Korea and to spend less time with him. Now that I’m actually making friends and hanging out with them when I’m free, all of a sudden I’m doing something wrong? I get that he’s uncomfortable with the fact that most of my friends here are guys. I get that he’s uncomfortable with the fact that I’m hanging out with a group of guys without him. But not once did he ever consider what I thought about the fact that most of his friends here are girls. Not once did he ever consider my feelings whenever he decided to hang out with those girls without me.