page eleven

Ring ring!

Another morning, another yawn coming out from Yejin’s lips. She gets up from bed involuntarily before preparing herself for another day of school.

“I’ll be going now,” she said to her father after she eats breakfast.

“Have a good day!” her father yells back.

Yejin closes the door behind her and takes a look at her leg. She had the bandages removed just now after taking a shower. It doesn’t hurt anymore. She gives her bike a glance, but then she walk past it, deciding that she should do things a bit different from now on. She walks down the road in normal pace, looking around the neighborhood like she never had before, letting her eyes wonder off here and there. And her mind, too, starts to wonder off on its’ own.

Yejin and Chanyeol was in his car, the radio was , filling the car with late night traffic news. Yejin had her head resting on her palm, her eyes taking in the glittering lights that scattered throughout the shadowy buildings surrounding the street. Just like those lights, her mind is utterly scattered, so hopelessly confused on what happened that night. She just couldn’t believe that he would use her to avoid that girl. It’s a good thing the girl just let it go, unlike what happened last time. But still, she’s still disappointed in him. But that’s what you signed up for, silly. Her conscious said with a mocking voice. Yejin sighs. That’s exactly the problem. She just couldn’t make herself to understand that there’s nothing to be disappointed about and that she should just play along with it. But deep down somewhere, she knows that she was hoping that they’re having a real date. And she just can’t seem to shake off that little glimmer of hope away. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Chanyeol looking focused and somehow lost at the road in front of them. Taking no interest, Yejin ignores him, hoping that he doesn’t notice her confused heart and her obviously sullen face.

Finally arrived at the bus stop, she sits down on the bench, noticing that she’s the only person there. Shrugging off her backpack, she hugs it on her lap and rests her head on it. She doesn’t even mind if people think that she’s sad, because honestly, she is. So why bother hiding it? She could feel her eyelids drooping when suddenly a shadow casts down her face, blocking the warm ray of the morning sun.

“Well, aren’t you a chipper today.” A light and cheerful voice said to her.

Yejin turns her head toward the direction of the voice and found a smiling Baekhyun sitting next to her. Like always, his hair is lightly tousled and the color of his hair even more light due to the morning sun basking it with its’ bright light. And that smile on his face would make every people in the vicinity turn their heads at him. It’s no wonder that this guy in front of her became the most popular guy in school in just a couple of minutes upon his arrival.

Yejin still lays her head on top of her bag and gives him a meek smile.

Baekhyun watches her face carefully before saying, “Are you okay?”

Yejin stares at him blankly. And before she could even stop herself, she said to him, “Have you ever felt like being used by someone?”

This question of hers made him raise his eyebrows. It took him a few seconds before he could reply her. “Why? What happened?”

Yejin continued to stare at his face. He looked genuinely concerned. Perhaps she shouldn’t have said the word ‘used’. If she spills it now, what would Baekhyun say? Yejin couldn’t imagine him thinking that she sold herself to some random guy. The way Baekhyun always smiled at her, the way that he seems like an innocent kid… No. She just couldn’t do it, ruining him like that. Perhaps, she should just keep this to herself. After all, the less people know, the better it is. “Never mind.” She sighs and looked the other way.

Sitting behind a large table alongside the higher ups of the company didn’t make Chanyeol any less distracted than he is at his own desk. Chanyeol kept his poker face on the entire meeting, aware that his father is breathing the same air as him. If he shows some kind of uneasiness in front of his father, he would definitely pester him about it later on. And right now, he wants to keep his agreement with Yejin all to himself. He has his head resting on the back of his palm, eyes focused on the screen while some guy doing a presentation for them. Watching all sorts of multi-colored shapes and charts and diagrams being displayed, his mind starts to dance for a moment, and being badly distracted as he is, he couldn’t stop himself from drifting away to that night.

Chanyeol might not be a mind reader, but he could tell that the girl sitting next to him is thinking about something and that something is actually bothering her. Actually, she’s been like that right after his blind date showed up, he noticed. He couldn’t help but wonder what went wrong that night. Did she hate the food? After all, he did just blindly pick between chocolate soufflé and lemon sorbet for dessert. Did she hate the soufflé? Or was it just too tacky? Cold sweat starts to form on his forehead. To tell you the truth, this was his very first ‘proper’ date with a girl. The dates he goes to in the past were all arranged, and very meticulously arranged to the point that even the topic of conversation is restricted to business only. He lets out a sigh and stares blankly at the road in front of him, stopping the car when they’ve reached a traffic lamp. He wants to know what’s going on in her head, but he doesn’t have the guts to ask. So right then, he guess he just needs to focus on getting her home safely and stop worrying about her if he doesn’t want to get hit by a truck.

Yes, he screwed it up pretty badly last night. He was being a stupid bloke last Friday night, not even noticing that she’s upset because he had used her to make his blind date go away in peace and quiet. He should’ve told her beforehand that he’s going to blow up his blind date that night. Oh how he feels like beating himself. He should do something about this. He should apologize to her.

“Everything okay?” A voice broke his trance.

He blinks a couple of times before realizing that he’s not in the meeting room anymore. He turns to his left and found his father, staring up at him. Turns out the meeting is over, and now he’s in the elevator with his father standing by his side. Geez, just how long has he been spacing out? He didn’t even know what the meeting was all about since he kept on spacing out through it all.

“You looked tense throughout the meeting. Is everything okay?” his father added.

“Yes. Everything’s under control.” Unless you’re talking about my life, which is a complete mess.

Being the oblivious man he is, Mr. Park smiles at him, his hand patting Chanyeol’s squared shoulders. “Glad everything’s working out well for you. I hope it’s not too much for you, being the executive director and all.” Mr. Park smiles at him. Chanyeol doesn’t even know what to say to that, so he returned the smile.

“While we’re at it, son, I have arranged you to meet with Mr. Jang’s daughter this weekend.”

Chanyeol scrunched up his nose a bit, but not too much so that Mr. Park would notice. He’s not usually the type to object his father, but it looks like he couldn’t help himself this time. The thought of having Yejin look like last night for the second time made his heart sank even deeper. He doesn’t want her to look like that, ever. So he’s gonna do what he has to do.

“I hope you could hit it off with her. She just graduated from Harvard last month. Harvard! Just imagine having her in the family. She’d be-”

“I’m sorry, dad. I’m in a hurry.” Chanyeol cut off his father.

“What? Where are you going?”

Chanyeol turn to look at his father, making sure that his father catch everything that he’s about to say. “To pick up my girlfriend,” he grinned.

“You’re going straight to work?”

Yejin stuffs the last book into her bag before zipping it close. The afternoon sky casts its’ way through the crystal clear window, making everything it touches glow a deep color of yellow. School may be over, but the day has nearly yet to be done. Well at least for Yejin, it’s still far from done. “No, I still have 2-3 hours before my shift starts.”

“You’re going home first, then?” Jiyul followed suit, slinging her backpack onto her shoulders.

Yejin nods at her.

“Great. We’ll go together, then.” Baekhyun cheekily smile at the two of them.

Yejin and Jiyul turn around to look at him, Jiyul eyeing him with interest. Ever since Friday, when Yejin took the bus with him, she couldn’t stop staring and grinning at the two of them. Yejin never takes the bus before, saying that it would consume more time to wait for the four wheeler to come, plus it’s not eco friendly enough.