Chapter 19
Topposites Attract
The sound of the heart monitor beeping was already too familiar for my ears. The beeps did the talking for her whenever she was sleeping.
But today she was awake. I told her about how TOP had let me live at his house and work there as well. I complained mostly but my mom combatted with compliments about him.
"He's so weird. Some times he'll spend hours cleaning his 'toy figures' and then go sit and quietly drink wine by himself." I said with a frown.
My mom shook her head and gave a gentle smile. "He's probably lonely Raena...being a celebrity, it's not like he can just go out and have fun with friends all the time."
"I don't even think he has friends!" I said but then immediately felt a little sorry. I didn't have friends either...what was I thinking?
"He's fairly popular I've heard. I saw him on tv the other day on that one show...runningman I think." She said and then sighed thoughtfully, "It's really kind of amazing that little Seunghyun actually grew up so handsomely and is successful. You really liked him when you were little Raena."
I held my breath and gave my mom a funny look. "How come I don't remember all this?"
She ignored me, "You two went together everywhere! One time he wanted to show his mom and me how you two kissed and so he pulled you from behind the trash can where you were hiding and kissed you!"
I bit my lip as my mom continued laughing.
"Umma. Umma stop. Right now." I said firmly.
It seemed as if she really liked TOP, everything about him that she said were compliments.
But why was it that the only things that came up in my mind about him were bad things?
Except for yesterday...when he saved me from the pool. And when he came to talk with me about our past lives. I felt more...comfortable with him?
I shook my head and sighed. Was it really okay to let my guard down? I never really let or allowed anyone to come into my life like this...only because everyone that I did let in hurt me and left me in the end. My friends, my dad, Jiwoo and even my mom in a way. I trusted people to protect me and love me like a family but I was the one who was behind...alone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
" s and guns and nuns and funny little dun de dun duns~" I freestyled a crappy line along to the rhythmic beat on the background.
"Are you trying to get this song banned?" TOP asked with a slight laugh in his voice.
"The beat is pretty good itself." Teddy said nodding his head to the instrumental. "This is better as the outro isn't it?"
"Yea hyung. Do you want me to do a fresh run now? I have my lyrics written down." TOP said taking his khaki colored hat off of his head.
"Yea go." Teddy beckoned to the studio room.
I tapped my pen to the desk and my knees tightened. This was going to be my first time actually hearing TOP rap...in person.
I put my headphones on and listened as Teddy began the track from the beginning.
I could see TOP behind the thick glass with his headphones on. His pretty eyes were closed and there was a sort of frown on his dark eyebrows as if he was concentrating.
His voice was unusually soft yet dark in a velvety way. It was a whisper that seemed to barely touch the music like how the tip of a paint brush just slightly dances on paper leaving a impactful picture.
It was...really good I had to admit.
And then he got into a powerful rap that used his entire voice, deep and full with richness.
I felt like I was in some sort of trance. The way he rapped was so professionally well done. Perfect in rhythm and flow, not to mention the smooth rhymes.
When the song was done, TOP came out of the recording room with a grin on his face as if he knew that he had done it well.
"Woah Tabi, your condition rocks today" Teddy complimented as he messed with the recorded track on screen.
We finished up recording pretty quickly due to TOP's flawless execution of the three tracks that we did.
Before I left the studio recording room, TOP grabbed my arm and pulled me back. "Yah I have something to tell you."
I flinched and asked "What could Choi Seunghyun possibly have to say to me?"
"I won't be home till later so...." TOP came real close to my ear and whispered, "go buy some ramyun from the convenience store before you go home." Where did his deep y rapping voice go?
"Do I look like I have money to spare?" I asked with a frown.
"Just go buy it." TOP shoved a manwon* in my hands and he raised his dark eyebrows. He pushed a finger up between my eyebrows to flatten out my frown. "And stop frowning so much. You'll get diarrhea."
TOP chuckled in a kind of dumb sort of way... Kinda like a Bingu. He brushed his hair out of his eyes and walked away with a smile on his face.
What the hell. Diarrhea?
Even though I was frustrated in a way, I couldn't help myself from chuckling, whether it was a scoff or not.
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I didn't buy the ramyun. I just kinda didn't feel like it.
It was 11:30 pm when I grabbed my headphones and iPod and went down to the living room to chill out on the couch.
---------(*manwon= roughly $10)---
TOP was sitting on the red suede couch looking like a stud as usual. He had his dark hair slicked up with water or something and black rectangular glasses to frame his face. His legs were elegantly crossed looking like he was posing for a photoshoot.
He was reading a comic book that seemed to completely alter his magnificent 21st century chic modern man look. Way to crash the image.
You would expect him to be reading the Wall Street journal but no. This guy...he was definitely different.
"Do you ever even read books?" I asked as I took a seat on the couch across from him.
TOP's thin lips opened slightly, "Don't talk to me, I'm pissed." His coffee dark hair shined in the light from the kitchen.
I scoffed and made myself comfortable on the seat.
"It's just that you never read books yet you always seem to look so smart." I said.
"Me? I skipped a lot during high school." TOP said cooly, flipping to the next page.
"Moya*...then what are you? Some genius who never studied but always got great grades?" I said imagining him as some genius high school crush that always comes out in Japanese mangas.
TOP adjusted his glasses before looking up at me. His deep star filled eyes looking into my soul.
"I almost flunked a grade." He said freely with his head cocked to the side.
Woah...what the hell. I did not expect him to be that kind of guy.
"Pfft. How the do you flunk a grade?" I laughed out loud.
"I said almost." TOP gave me a nasty look. "There is a perfectly fine reading room upstairs right by your room. Go up there."
"If it's so perfect, why don't you 'Mr. Perfect' go upstairs?" I asked sarcastically.
"Yah, turn around and don't talk to me or go upstairs!" TOP growled in his deep voice. He grabbed a white couch pillow that was next to him and threw it at my face.
It hit me smack in the face. Ouch. That pillow had beads on it.
I grabbed the pillow next to me and I lunged it at him. Pillows were thrown and faces were hit but in the end...we laughed our asses off. Whenever we hit our target, we would crack up with joy and the satisfaction of letting off steam.
I felt like a little kid again. Something about this carefree atmosphere and something about...him.
As days passed by, we fought over almost everything. Whether or not the celebrity on tv had plastic surgery, or who left the lawn lights on.
It was some kind of brotherly relationship that was building between us. A Hyung-dongsaeng relationship.
But still... It wasn't like I "liked" him or anything. I just began to think, "Hmm he's not that terrible of a person for me to kill."
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