Jiho

No one's POV

Another day. Jiho rolls over to his side facing the door waiting for one of the maids to come in and wake him up. His mother owns several fashion stores and has a successful fashion line of her own. His father, stepfather, owns a computer software company.

As expected, the clock strikes 10:00 a.m. and a maid comes into Jiho's room for his wake up call.

It's a Saturday and for once; he isn't busy or out this weekend. His stepfather usually takes him to his software company to train him and show him how to manage a company every weekend so one day Jiho can run it. But today, his father was in Japan and his mother was in Singapore for business trips.

Jiho gets up as soon as the maid, Minah, comes in. She's a small 57 year-old woman who's been with his family since before he was born. She's one of the two people who have been a constant person in Jiho's life. A mother figure for him.

"Good morning, Jiho. I woke you up later today. I heard you come in late last night." she didn't ask where he was; she already knows. Even though he's a quiet boy his friends are rowdy and loud; always taking him to concerts, clubs, parties, trying to make him happy. "Go wash up. Breakfast is on the table." Minah says as she leaves his room and closes the door behind her after Jiho nodded his head as response.

It's not that Jiho couldn't talk, he just didn't talk much. Only talking when needed to and when spoken to. He didn't really like all the clubs and parties his friends took him to, but he liked being around them and liked their efforts. Secretly, he was jealous. Jealous of their closeness, jealous of the their friendship with each other. He wanted to be close with them, to laugh with them, party with them.

After breakfast, Jiho got dressed and decided to go out. He didn't like walking around his neighborhood or the rich side of town which he lived in. It wasn't he style, he didn't like the expensive clothes, the fancy food, the snobby people. He liked eating junk food and walking places and going outside without a driver and wearing jeans and a jacket instead of suits and dress pants and going to convenience stores to buy ramen and soda. Jiho liked to eat at the window in the store and watch the different people pass by.

In his free time, he came to this specific convenience store around 11 a.m. and waited. He waited for a girl. The girl didn't know him, she would just walk by the store everyday. She caught his eye the first time he came to this store. He didn't know anything about her, he just watched her walk past the store to get to where she needed to go.

She was cute, tall, medium length blonde hair, very pretty. He liked the way she walked and her attitude. He couldn't approach, oh no.

"How would I approach her?"

"What would I say?"

"Would it sound creepy to say 'I watch you walk from one end of the street to the other'?"

Those are the thoughts that ran through his mind every time he saw her. He was never good talking to people- especially pretty girls.

As he was thinking about what to say to her, she walked by. Today, her hair was up in a messy ponytail with what looked her pajamas on. What he didn't expect was for her to come in the store. She walked in, well, more than a walk. She looked like a princess even though it looked looked like she just woke up.

He watched out the corner of his eye at her as his heart was pacing. The nameless girl walked straight to the soup section and grabbed some packages and sauntered over to the counter to pay for it. The cashier asked if she wanted to eat it here and she said "No, thank you." Jiho felt disappointed and also relieved.

Disappointed because he wanted her here and relieved because he was so nervous he wanted her to go away. Her voice was quiet and even though she looked tough, she sounded sweet even though she said 3 words and it melted him. He felt like a puddle of mixed emotions.

After she payed, she walked out of the store and back the way she came.

"She must not be going anywhere today." Jiho thought.

After he finished eating, he walked around that side of town and not really knowing where he was going. Half of him wanted to keep walking and hopefully see her, and the other half wanted to turn around and go home immediately. Jiho walked for a good hour before he finally started making his way home.

When he got home, it was already 3pm. Not to his surprise, his best friend, Jonghwa was sitting on the couch eating food and watching t.v. Jonghwa, or Jota as his friends called him, was the other constant person in Jiho's life. He has been friends with Jota since they were 15 years old.

Jonghwa was always the tough guy who got all the girls. He protected Jiho from bullies and girls who just wanted Jiho's money. He was like Jiho's protector and they've been best friends since.

"I let myself in if you don't mind. I also am eating your chips if you also don't mind." Jota said.

Jiho just shook his head and headed upstairs to change. He liked when his friend was over, but also didn't like it because he only came over when his parents got into fights. Jonghwa never liked his parents fighting and ever since they were little he came over to Jiho's house to escape from it.

"Where did you go?" Jota asked.

"Out. I just went out."

Jota looked over at Jiho who was sitting beside him and raised his eyebrow. "Where did you go? Since when do you leave your house by yourself?"

"It's nothing. I just went outside and walked around." Jiho technically wasn't lying, he didn't want to tell his friend about the girl he sees. He wanted to keep her a secret.

Jota was going to ask again but stopped himself knowing Jiho won't give him a straight answer.

They sat in silence as they watched the television and ate chips for a few hours before Jota got called to come home.

After Jota left, Jiho went upstairs and sat at his desk, taking out his journal. He kept his thoughts in there and he wrote songs. He liked music and knew how to okay the guitar and piano. He hoped one day he could sing for his girlfriend; serenade her. It was a weird thought but it was something Jiho wanted.

He wanted someone to take him away from here and make music together with. To talk to all day, love all night, and give good morning kisses to. Deep inside, he knew he wouldn't find someone like that. No one would want to be with someone like him.

Quiet, can't express his feelings, awkward. He felt unlovable. The only love he receives is from his friends. He can't remember the last time his mother hugged him or even said something caring to him. It wasn't that their relationship was bad, she was just too busy. Forget his stepfather, he was just a grown up bully. Taking out his frustrations on him and his mother. A menace to his family.

His sister, Yuji, left 2 years ago. She went to study abroad and get away from everything, leaving him by himself with no one to protect him from his father and from life. He loved her, but was mad at her and couldn't stand to hear her name. She abandoned him, she left him by himself.

It was already dinner time by the time Jiho was done writing but he didn't go down because he wasn't hungry. Minah argued with him and told him to eat but he refused politely.

He laid in bed and waited for sleep to come for him. He daydreamed of meeting the girl from the store and what it would be like to be with her. Not necessarily as a girlfriend- not that he didn't want that- but just with her as a friend. As he was dreaming sleep came over him and he fell asleep.