page three

He never returned after his phone rang that day. Mr. Lee didn’t even have a grudge on the guy since he paid for the hospital bills for her. And to be honest, it was kind of weird after she got discharged from the hospital the next day. She wants to thank him for saving him and paying her bills, but she didn’t even know anything about him besides for his name that’s rather vague in her memory. Now that she thinks about it, he had only said his name once, so it’s only normal that his name doesn’t get etched in her mind.

Nevertheless, a whole week passed by with another round of part-time works and Jiyul’s endless worrying when she came to school the next day after she got discharged. Seriously, that girl acts like her mother at times like this. But she got to admit, Chanyeol’s face would sometimes pop up from time to time when she spotted someone that looks like him. Yejin doesn’t even know why her mind plays around with her vision, probably because she hit her head rather hard, according to the doctor. “But it’s nothing major, nothing to worry about.” She remembered him said to her and her dad. But that didn’t stop her from trying to search him up on the internet.

She’d love to ask Jiyul for some help since she knows lots of people thanks to all those magazines she read on her spare time. But then again, she’d ask too much question that she might not be able to handle it. So in the end, she Googled him for a good 5 hours. She then found out that Chanyeol is actually a chaebol (kids who come from a rich family), son of a famous communication corporation’s CEO. It took her quite some time before she could finally remember his name as she could only remember his last name and ‘Chan’ something. She should’ve paid more attention when he introduced himself, she feels like slapping herself. She then wondered whether he knows her name or not. I mean, he did pay for the bills, he should know, right? But then again, why didn’t she introduce herself and not to mention her dad? Another slap for me. Yejin softly slaps her cheek.

Her eyes makes their way toward the small clock placed on her desk. 17:31, it reads. Besides, we live in two different worlds. I should stop thinking about him. Somehow, that part about living in two different worlds saddens her. He doesn’t look like a chaebol when she first met him that day, and he surely doesn’t act like one. But now that she found out about his identity –thanks to uncle Google-, she’s not so sure if she should say hi when they cross paths again someday, all because they live in different worlds. Yejin abruptly stops her never-ending thoughts and takes a deep breath before she mutters to herself, “Get up, Yejin. It’s time for work.”

“Order for table 42!” Ding!

“Thanks.” Yejin shouts through the sizzling sounds, mixed smells of food and hectic environment of the kitchen. Everyone’s practically shouting at each other. She grabs the finished dishes and puts them onto her tray before making her way out to the dining room.

It’s Sunday and the hotel is always short on staff during this day. Yejin can’t even have fun like a normal girl her age on the weekends as she gets thicker paycheck during those days. And as we all know, she really need those greens.

“Excuse me, your order has arrived.” She puts on her friendliest smile as she lay down the plates in front of the couple who are enjoying their candle-light dinner.

The couple didn’t even bother to look at Yejin and say thanks as they start to dig into their food. Yejin walks back to the kitchen to get other orders. She can’t just idle around or stay still for a second. She looks around to look out for any people who want to call for her helping hand. That’s when she sees Chanyeol. Or maybe a person that looks like him. Yejin softly shakes her head and take another closer look at the person, and it’s really him! Something in Yejin’s stomach stirs when she finally gets to look his whole face. But it doesn’t look like he’s dining alone. Yejin’s eyes move slightly to the right and that stomach-stirring feeling earlier dissipates in an instant. So he’s not alone after all. She sighs as she unconsciously checks out the girl from head to toe.

BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER MADE. That girl has everything that Yejin has to live without; tall height, goddess-like facial features, coke bottle curves, and everything else that made Yejin feel so self-conscious about her.

Urgh I shouldn’t have checked her out. She grunts to herself. Why did I even think of comparing myself to her? Of course he’d have those kinds of girls by his side; it’s just natural that way.

“Lee Yejin! Stop idling and come back in here! We still got lots of work to do!” Yejin’s supervisor yelled at her, but not loud enough to make the entire dining room to look at her weirdly.

Yejin jolts in her stance, her supervisor’s yelling breaks her thoughts and forces her to go back to earth this instant. “Coming!” She yells back a bit too loudly because some people look her way before she disappears into the kitchen.

“It’s really nice to meet you, Chanyeol oppa.”

Chanyeol had to hide his cringe in front of this girl in front of him. He’s not a huge fan of clingy and overly-girly girls. God, he didn’t even remember why in the world he agreed to come to this blind date. And did that girl just called him “oppa”? Tsk. They only met and she’s already being chummy toward him. Is this girl desperate or what? Chanyeol inwardly rolls his eyes.<