Chapter 10
Topposites Attract
My fingers gripped tightly around my can of grape soda which began to crinkle under my strength. My eyes were casted down at the ground, just a few stones and patches of grass.
I could feel his heat right next to me....well at least somewhat near.
I was sitting at the edge of the bench and TOP was sitting at the other edge, the furthest away from me. Any more further and he might have fell. We were sitting outside the hospital at a small park, away from our mothers so that they could have time to talk with each other.
From the corner of my eye, I could tell that he was feeling uneasy and awkward too. His fingers tapped lightly but furiously on his can of soda. The rapping sound of tin making unsteady beats made me even more disoriented.
"So how long has your mother...been here?" TOP asked cautiously in his low voice after clearing his throat.
I breathed out of my nose and rubbed the corner of my lips with my palm as I kept my focus down at the stones on the ground.
"About...two or three years now. Her health wasn't good even when I was in high school." I replied with a sneezy voice looking up at the sky as if I wasn't even talking to him.
I could see that he was slightly nodding as if he understood.
"So then it must have been pretty hard for you huh?" TOP asked with kindness to his voice. So. Fricken. Awkward.
I kicked a small grey rock near my nike jays and scoffed with a smirk.
"Hard? Hell yeah it was hard...doing so much crap just to get a bill paid each month. It was...hard" I said trying to list all the other things I had to go through but all I could think in my mind was that it was still hard.
"Then...what about your father?"
My feet stopped kicking at the rocks and I grimaced.
Who the hell is he to ask about my father? He was the one threatening me first and just because we had some connection in the past that I can't even remember, now he's acting like we were friends or something?
I threw my soda can down at my feet and crushed it down. Picking it up, I threw it in perfectly into the nearby trash can.
"You know what?" I said as I jammed my hands into my pockets and stood up.
"I don't know you, you don't know me. Let's keep it that way. It's only our moms who are friends. You and me? We're only strangers. Stop trying to...get to know me." I said with anger spitting at my voice, my teeth biting at my lips to stop myself from cussing. I smiled sarcastically.
I knew I was mean...but life is cruel and I learned it early. So I knew I had to be mean. It wasn't a choice.
I began to casually walk back into the hospital but TOP spoke up in a soft voice.
"You...you were trying to steal those songs for your mother, weren't you?"
My feet froze and I closed my eyes to shut myself out. I felt embarrassed and ashamed of myself. How could I say yes? How could tell him that I tried to do something bad for something good? Such a stupid thing to say.
I continued walking back into the hospital and I could hear him behind following me. As we walked though the pale grey hallways of hospital rooms and clinics, I could feel eyes of young nurses all over him, their voices whispering and pointing with cellphone cameras.
When we reached up to the rooftop garden, my mom and his mom were so deeply in conversation that they didn't even realize that we were there.
Oh Raena-ya." My mom realized I was standing there and their voices hushed to a whisper.
"I'm gonna go...head home now" I said slowly.
TOP's mom...I could now see how amazingly they resembled each other, especially their eyes.
She stood up from the bench and walked up to me with a kind smile. Holding a hand up to my face, she pulled a strand of hair right out of my face and tucked it behind my ear.
"Raena...you just have kindness all over your face don't you?" She said softly.
I could hear the sound of TOP choking on his own breath when his own mother called me kind. I even had to push down a scoff.
I awkwardly pulled away from her touch. I was never used to people touching me, strangers usually...
I gave a tight sort of forced smile and looked away from her eyes. "Umm, yeah thank you. I uh should get going." I said quickly, rubbing my eye and stepping away.
"Yeah if you're busy, you should go hon." My mom said encouragingly.
Quickly enough, TOP's mom spoke up. "Ah, You know what?"
She turned to TOP with a raised eyebrow. "Seunghyun-ah! You should drop Raena off at her house-"
"Mother." Seunghyun quickly said with a stern look on his face.
"What?" She asked smiling.
TOP had the most dumbfounded look on his face. His eyes were half open and kitten lips closed tightly in a straight line.
"Umma. I can't drive." TOP said with a sort of attitude.
TOP's mom broke out in an ashamed laughter and did a face palm, "Ah that's right! Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking. I just thought that he could drive for a minute there."
My mom cracked up along with her while TOP and I were standing there with emotionless faces.
My mom faced seunghyun and smiled "Then why don't you go walk Raena home then? It's not far from here-"
"Umma, I can go home alone." I quickly said.
I gave a frustrated sigh and gave a small of my head. "Well I'll just leave now. Nice meeting you today." I said politely to my oh so close "aunt".
I hated how all of sudden this was. The fact that it had to be that guy that was her son and the fact that all this time, no one had come to visit my mom yet now this woman comes and pretends to care?
Without hearing their goodbyes, I quickly headed to the door and ran down the stairs in fast steps.
And gradually, my pace quickened as I noticed that TOP was following me just as fast. His shadow dominated over mine as he got closer and closer, his height over towering me as he reached me. The air was a reddish warm with no room for breeze and then I stopped running.
All I could hear now was the sound my stagnated breathing the sounds of evening birds chirping quietly.
"Why are you following me?!" I half yelled half asked him as I stood up straight.
TOP didn't even look as if he had just ran, his hair perfectly flawless and breathing calm and stable.
"You said you wanted to be strangers? Fine, quit then." He said with a rumble to his voice, sounding like a fine paint brush coating every articulation with perfection.
I frowned at him and rolled my tongue on the inside of my cheek.
"Quit. And tell YG sajangnim everything. I don't want to work with a lying..." TOP thought for a moment to come up with the right word and failed, "...person like you. I don't need to see you nor do I want to see you."
I scoffed and looked at him with arrogance. "Yah, you know what? I will! I'll confess and tell the whole world. You'd like that wouldn't you?!"
"Yes. Do it then. I'd much rather have you arrested than having you as my co-worker." TOP said in a rather mean voice but I wasn't gonna be hurt by that.
"Fine then!" I yelled back with a growl.
"Fine." He said back casually.
"Fine!"
"Fine." TOP finished the awkward yell fight by putting his squarish sunglasses on with a cool flare and then turned around, back to the hospital.
Damn...now I was really hating him. Everything about him. The way he walked, in that cool runway walk and his glaring eyes that seemed to speak more than words.
You don't want to see me again? Hell no I don't want to even think about a rude jerk like you.
I scoffed loudly and shook my head in frustration as I headed the way home. Even as I swore that I wouldn't see him again...I knew. I had a feeling that he would be someone that I would be seeing more than everyday.
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