Chapter 8

“Now, keep cool.” Changmin said, as Jaejoong climbed into his black ferrari, hands shaking so much he could hardly grip the steering wheel.

“Changmin Oppa. Jaejoong Oppa’s not stupid.” Victora laughed, dragging her boyfriend away from the nervous young man, “Good luck, Oppa. We will see you at the beach.” She called to him, waving cheerfully.

Changmin coughed violently as Jaejoong’s car swept away, causing the dust along the dry road to fly upwards & scatter, along with the fumes from the exhaust pipe, “In all these years that I have known him, I have never seen him react to a girl the way he does to Yuri.” He gasped, regaining the use of his lungs, “In fact.” Changmin continued, beginning to crack up, “For the longest time, I thought he was gay.”

“Hey. That was mean. This is my boss we are talking about & he isn’t gay.” Victoria defended Jaejoong, although she couldn’t keep a straight face, “But its true. I have never seen him so nervous either.”

Changmin smiled lovingly at her. She was so sweet & kind, always considerate of others. He slipped his arm about her slim waist, “Victoria, I...oh, no.”

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Victoria asked, alarmed.

“I forgot to tell Jaejoong to pick up a bouquet along the way!” Changmin cried, slapping his forehead & looking around frantically as if Jaejoong would suddenly appear.

“Forget it.” Victoria laughed, relieved, grabbing onto his arm, “Jaejoong’s not a little kid. I’m sure he will be fine.”

“You don’t get it, Jaejoong doesn’t think of these things.”

Victoria reached up & silenced him with a kiss, causing Changmin to wipe the problem out of his head immediately. His only thoughts were focused on Victoria & Victoria alone.

Jaejoong drove along, clutching the steering wheel tightly, still in the same distracted state he had been in all morning, ‘Calm down, Jaejoomg.’ He chided himself, ‘You have never acted like this before & this is no time to begin. Get a grip on yourself.’

In truth, Jaejoong had never even felt this way before. Yuri managed to bring out all the feelings in him that he had never experienced, that no one else could bring out. It scared him because he had no idea how to cope with them. She was special, so precariously special, that he felt she would slip away from him at any given time, any moment. Jaejoong was afraid to lose her. He wanted to savor that feeling of love for as long as possible, even if that same feeling couldn’t be bestowed upon him in return. Even if it couldn’t get him to heaven. All he wanted was to be with her & just being with her was enough. Yuri occupied his every thought & Jaejoong often felt he was going to be driven to the brink of insanity, if he wasn’t there already.

His thoughts finally stopped whirling as he arrived in front of Mrs. Choi’s house & saw a beautiful girl waiting, her silhouette dulling the grayness of the house, “Yuri.” He breathed, as she came towards him, loving how her name sounded on his lips.

“Why did I think I could do this?” Yuri muttered, pacing in front of the house, “I can’t believe I agreed to spend a whole day with him. I’m already going crazy.”

In between the hours of yesterday morning & now, Yuri had done nothing but try to convince herself that Jaejoong had just asked out of friendship & this wasn’t a date but deep down inside, she knew he hadn’t. She had also tried to tell herself that she wouldn’t worry about Jaejoong & what he thought, although she had still gotten up considerably earlier to find the fashion for the day.

“At this rate.” Yuri yawned sleepily, “I will be asleep before we even get to the beach.” The squealing tires as Jaejoong’s car pulled into the driveway shattered her tired state & she looked up to see a tousled-haired Jaejoong getting out to open the car door for her. Another blue heather van heusen point-collar casual button-down shirt clearly defined his muscular body & Yuri once again, found herself staring at him.

‘Yuri.’ Her mind reminded her sharply, as she felt the heat creeping into her cheeks. Trying to settle her self-composure, she walked towards him.

“So…um, it’s a perfect day today.” Yuri commented, struggling to break the awkward silence in the car while forcing her wandering eyes to stay away from Jaejoong. His body seemed to attract her eyes like a magnet so she was forced to look in the other direction, out of the window.

“It sure is.” Jaejoong tried to continue the conversation. He had barely managed to avoid saying ‘& so are you’. Afraid he would blurt out those four words, Jaejoong kept his mouth shut. They lapsed into silence. All the normal times, they have had in the past vanished before the situation they were in, resulting in absolute silence for the whole car ride.

All in all, both were glad to arrive at the beach where they found Changmin & Victoria waiting for them. Suddenly, feeling the warm ocean wind caressing her cheeks & hearing the low rumble of the sea, Yuri felt like herself again, ‘After all, I’m at the beach with three of my friends, what was there to worry about?’

“Come on, Oppa.” Yuri smiled joyously, pulling Jaejoong towards the waves that was sparkling in the distance with the promise of a happy day.