If This Was A Movie

It was almost time to go.

A little before 8:30, I started handing off my tables to Baoyu and Jaeyoon. By the time 8:30 arrived, the two (along with Shengli’s assistance) had completely taken over my section. I gathered my stuff and said goodbye to Lihua just as Rui entered the restaurant.

“Ready?” she asked. I nodded and waved goodbye to everyone once more before following her out the door. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a driver’s license and, even if I did, I couldn’t afford a car. I tried not to inconvenience Rui as much as I could, but she was always willing to give me a ride whenever I needed it. In this case, she had to teach a late night class during the same time as my Korean class, so the timing was perfect.

“How was work?” Rui asked as she pulled into traffic.

I shrugged, “The usual. Nothing really interesting ever happens there.”

“Well, they all seem like great people to work with,” Rui said, “And I saw Shengli there again…”

I smiled and rolled my eyes, “Oh please…how many times do I have to tell you? He’s sixteen!”

“So there’s a few years age difference…”

“Try seven years and he’s still a minor.”

“I can wait two years for him to come of age.” I laughed out loud.

“You’re insane.” Rui gave me a cheeky smile and I could only laugh at her. We fell into comfortable silence as Rui drove through the streets of Seoul. Then, I noticed that we weren’t driving the right way.

“Rui,” I said, as she made an abrupt right turn, “Where are we going?”

“They’re doing road construction,” Rui explained, “I got caught in traffic this morning after dropping you off…made me ten minutes late to my class. I’m not risking it this time, so we’re taking a little detour.” I nodded and stared out the window at the pouring rain. It was dark now, and only the street lamps lit the streets. We finally to a brighter, busier road and I could see people walking around with umbrellas and raincoats.

When we were stopped at a red light, I looked up at a large building with a huge poster next to it. It was displaying a showcase for a new boy band that was coming out. Rui and I weren’t big fans of Korean music (or music at all for that matter) so we never paid attention to K-Pop. However, this poster made me do a double take. It was brightly lit with lights and there were many girls surrounding it, but that’s not what made me have to look twice.

One of the guys on the poster looked so familiar – so achingly familiar. I continued to stare at his face, feeling my heart twist and turn. I never thought I’d ever see that face again. I felt his eyes burning into me – seeing into my soul and knowing who I am. It wasn’t until the car started moving, causing the poster to leave my view that I was pulled out of my trance.

No, that’s impossible. This is South Korea! Why would he be in Korea? And a part of some boy band? I don’t think so...besides, he’s not even Korean! Even though he always had a love for music…no. Absolutely not. It couldn’t be him.

“Hey, you ok?” Rui asked, nudging my shoulder. I glanced at her once before staring down at my hands.

“Yeah, just tired, I guess,” I said, cracking my knuckles, “Um, Rui?”

“Mm?”

“Uh, have you heard of a new boy band coming out?” I wondered while internally screaming at myself. It wasn’t him! It couldn’t have been!

Rui shook her head, “You know I don’t pay attention to that kind of stuff.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said, “I just…I saw a poster for a debut showcase for a new boy band. I think it said E-X-O?”

“Oh! EXO!” Rui exclaimed, “I heard my students talking about that group.”

“Really?” I asked as we finally pulled back onto a familiar road to me.

Rui nodded, “Yeah! The only reason I remember is because my students were saying that the group was split in half – one group sings in Korean while the other sings in Mandarin.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” I said, feeling my heart flutter. His face, plus Mandarin songs…

“I know, right?” Rui said, “I think I might listen to them…well, it depends on how good their Chinese is. You know how most of these Korean groups don’t speak Mandarin very well.”

I let out a small laugh, “Yeah.”

“But I heard my students saying that the Mandarin half actually has Chinese members,” Rui continued, “Ah, they said their names, but I can’t remember… Oh, I remember Kris though! That was the only name that wasn’t really Chinese…”

“Oh, ok,” I said, feeling my heart drop into the pit of my stomach. I tuned out Rui’s rambling as she tried to remember the names of this new group, EXO.

It couldn’t be him. The chances of that are so unlikely. I mean, he left almost four years ago, there’s no way he could be in some new Korean pop boy band! And, out of all the places in the world, to be in the same country – the same city as him?! The likelihood of that is so unbelievable! It was probably just some lookalike. Yeah, he may have been handsome and cute, but he wasn’t the only handsome/cute person in China. Yeah, it was probably just some guy who looked like him…

“…and after Yixing…Luhan! Yes, that was the last one! Ah, I remembered them all!” Rui exclaimed, feeling proud of herself. However, I could feel everything just drain out of my body, leaving me numb.

I shook my head and ignored it. Even if it was him, why should I care? He left years ago. He probably doesn’t even remember me. What we had obviously meant nothing to him if he was so willing to drop it and run. Even if he is in this new boy band, it’s not like I’m ever going to see him…

“Hey,” Rui said, opening her car door, “You coming?” I snapped out of my thinking to see that we were at the school already. I unbuckled my seatbelt and got out of the car, running through the rain and under the shelter of the school.

It was almost time for class…and I couldn’t focus anymore. Once again, he somehow managed to get into my head. Once again, he managed to make my mind turn to mush. Once again, my world revolved around him. I thought back to all the happy times we had together, and there was a part of me that thought about meeting him again in Korea, but I quickly changed that thought. If he really cared, he would have come back by now. He would have called or written to me. Instead, he left me alone in Beijing, taking away the only thing I had left to stand on. When I fell, I fell hard, and he wasn’t there to catch me.

It was time for me to let go…but why does that sound so impossible?

Hi guys! I'm back from vacation! :D So yeah, I'm not going away anymore for the summer, but I move into college in two weeks so I might be a little MIA then, but I won't give this story up, I promise! I am too obsessed with this plotline (and I have basically everything planned out already) to give it up. Updates might be a little more spread out though. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! It took me a while to find the right song to fit the chapter story, and I'm still not completely satisfied with my choice, so if anyone knows about a song that they think fits better, let me know! I can always changed the chapter title and song! :)

So yeah, thank you everyone for reading, commenting, subscribing, and upvoting this story! It really really really means a lot to me that people actually like my writing! ^_^ Love you guise~ ♥♥♥