~Chapter seven~

Jiyong opened his eyes to find Chaerin sleeping on his shoulder. They'd probably slept late due to the Taiwanese drama they were watching. Jiyong had to translate every sentence to Chaerin while the latter nodded excitedly although she couldn't even understand a word the casts said. They'd only watched it because Chaerin thought the actor was handsome.

Jiyong didn't agree.

He thought he was better looking.

He slowly moved aside, piling the pillows as he rested Chaerin gently on his bed and moved himself to the wash room. Realizing he was up earlier than usual he stretched and took some exercises his physiotherapist taught him. He glanced at the sleeping figure and then at the clock. It was very unusual for Chaerin to get up this late, it was because of her that he got used to waking up early. Brushing the thoughts away, he assumed she'd probably been exhausted staying up late the other night.

After the rather easy looking, but difficult exercises, Jiyong dived on Chaerin's bed breathing heavily. A certain object jabbed his back and he pulled the object to find that it was a diary. The one that Chaerin daily wrote on.

Jiyong looked around the room and quickly placed the diary on the side table shaking his thoughts of reading it away. He tapped his finger on his knee as he hummed a catchy advertisement song, trying his best to keep his head preoccupied.

He failed completely and found himself holding the diary between his palms as he told himself that he was just going to take a glimpse of the contents.... Nothing more.

Taking a deep breath before opening the hard cover, he shut his eyes for a minute, trying to dissolve the guilty feeling.

"It's just a diary...." he murmured to himself. "you're not committing a crime Kwon Jiyong."

Swallowing a big lump in his throat he proceeded to flip the cover causing something to fall off from between the folds.

A family photo.

He picked up the photo and grazed his finger over it, remembering everything she'd told him about her family. Flipping the photo around his eyes darted to the memo written at the top left corner.

6th July 1992 (3rd year anniversary + snap taken after Rinrin's first word, "Kuma")

A smile crept to Jiyong's face and he didn't try to hide it. Imagining a baby Chaerin with a small pout saying "Kuma", whatever that meant. He wondered if his parents even remembered what his first word was.

"W-What time is it?" A raspy voice said and Jiyong almost threw the diary into the air. Luckily, he didn't.

"Hey! You're up..." he said as he swiftly pushed the diary under the pillow and pretended to grab the water bottle. "It's 9--" he glanced at the clock on his right and continued. "--9:37"

"What?" Chaerin sprang up and scrambled away from the bed, pushing her hair away from her face, frustrated. "Why didn't you wake me up?" she said in an annoyed tone as she dashed into the washroom.

"I didn't want to disturb you." Jiyong replied idiotically as he waited for a reply but received nothing but the sound of the tap water crashing against the sink.

"Sorry, I didn't know I had to." he said again as he unconsciously pout and moved back to his bed, folding the sheets as he spoke.

"I'm sorry for being so rude..... Of course you didn't know." Chaerin said as she emerged from the wash room, dabbing a towel to her face. "After all that you did for me that's how I repay you." she added as she leaned against the washroom door and watched as he fold the sheets and fix his bed.

"Thank you....."

Jiyong stopped immediately and turned around to look at the girl who always surprised her with her random words. Why's she thanking me? I'm the one who's supposed to thank her.

"... For listening." she said as she knead the towel between her palms. ".... And for promising to never leave me, although we're still practically strangers to each other."

Jiyong's jaw fell as he heard the last sentence. Did she really have to say that? Strangers? Seriously?

"Am I just a stranger to you?" he asked as he asked her to come over. Which she did. "After all these days?"

"No.... I mean y-yes!" Chaerin said as she swayed her body like a child. "We're just in the process of knowing each other."

"Okay....?" Jiyong supressed his smile as he watched how cutely she pout without knowing. Something the two of them did but weren't aware of.

"If it makes you feel better. You're a  very nice stranger." Chaerin quickly responded, earning a chuckle from Jiyong.

"Then we shouldn't waste time to get to know each other better right?" Jiyong said confidently as he watched a nurse open the door and enter with a food trolley.

Chaerin gulped and hesitated for a second before replying a timid "Yes."

"So you actually own this hospital?" Chaerin gawked at him, dropping the kimbab from her chopsticks that stopped mid-air.

"Yeah..." Jiyong nod nonchalantly, like it was no big deal. "and a few other things."

"other things?" Chaerin repeated. "Like what?" she picked the kimbab up and flung it into . "Don't tell me you're like the owner of the K-corp group or.... Or.... Or..."  she said flinging her index finger in the air, "Samsung." stifling her laugh she took a sip of the sparkling water, which Jiyong had said tastes like water from the purest stream. In all honesty, she didn't know the difference between the said one and tap water.

"No... I don't own them." Jiyong said, Chaerin wiggled her eyebrows and made a funny face which immediately died when Jiyong continued, ".... Yet"

"Y-Yet?"

Jiyong nod, pretending to ignore Chaerin whose eyes were literally going to fall off its socket. "Yep." he said popping the last syllable. "My parents legally still own it, of course! (it)Will be mine when I prove myself worthy of it. Which is why I used to work day and night."

Jiyong waited for a reply but got none. In the past whenever he'd introduce himself or his family, girls he used to meet before changed instantly to a different person, trying too hard to impress him, which only resulted to the exact opposite. He only wished Chaerin didn't react that way too, neither did he want her to ignore her like some others he did kind of like did, saying "We're too different. It will not work out."

He whipped his head up to find Chaerin grinning like a kid who just won a round of Tekken.

"W-What?" Jiyong flushed.

"Nothing...." Chaerin said as she shook her head and smacked her lips together so she wouldn't let out a laugh.

"Now you're making me curious Chaerin." Jiyong drawled. "You know how much I hate this."

"Which is exactly why I'm doing it." she grinned again.

"You're impossible." Jiyong sighed, "Fine. Don't tell."

"You really wanna know?" Chaerin asked as she pulled her knees to her chest. "Promise me you won't get angry." she warned as she watched him signal to go on.

"Okay..." she her bottom lip and Jiyong looked away immediately. "I imagined the Kwon's son to be sort of, taller.....?"

Jiyong choked on his orange juice, it was nothing he was expecting her to say. After his mighty bragging session, (which mind you, was only a ), that was what she had to say?

"God! Slow down. " Chaerin quickly grabbed the tissues and handed it to Jiyong who took them and wiped his mouth, but still continued to cough. His eyes started watering as he bent down and hit his chest. A soft pair of hands rubbed his back gently as he eventually stabilized.

"Are you alright?" Chaerin asked as she gave a last gentle pat on his back and pulled him up.

"Y-yeah!" Jiyong gasped. "I'm fine."

"What happened? Was it something I said?" Chaerin asked innocently as her eyebrows furrowed together.

"It's fine Chae." Jiyong smiled patting the head of the little one. "And for your information! I'm 3 inches taller than the average height of Korean men."

"Fair enough." Chaerin shrugged, clearing the plates and piling them on top of each other, pouring the left overs into a bowl.

"Good." Jiyong nod appreciatively.

".... But I imagined you to look more like Choi Siwon of Super Junior...."

Jiyong huffed in disgust as he wiped the stains off the table with a tissue.

".... Or like your friend.. Mr. Choi, Choi SeungHyun was it?" Chaerin grinned seeing the irritated face on Jiyong.

"Yah!"

Author’s note:

Ello everybody! I was itching to update, although this chapter is like… really short and full of conversations. I just wanted to dedicate a chapter on how casual their friendship is now.

Btw, I learnt that my little cousin reads this so … I will NOT put rated scenes.. besides, I don’t really like them; makes me uncomfortable.

I will update on every Saturday from now onwards. J
And yeah, do check out the sequel for ISILY, which is Happily Ever After .
 

With love~
E