After getting lost around different roads and neighborhoods, Hyun Ae finally managed to find Bobby’s house. With a slight tremor in her hand, she gulped and pressed the doorbell. Almost immediately, the door swung open to a smiling Bobby.

“Eeyyyyyy, you’re here! Come in!”

She slowly stepped in and glanced at Bobby’s casual attire – a muscle tank paired with some gym shorts with a black cap that had the bill turned backwards. She then observed her surroundings. It was a simple house that was decorated with many handmade pieces – family photos, drawings, trinkets.

She followed Bobby into the kitchen where snacks had been laid out.

“Help yourself, my aunt was super excited to hear I actually have a girl coming over, HAHA.”

Hyun Ae smiled shyly as she looked from Bobby to the various sweets that were placed neatly on the table. Bobby handed her a plate and they both grabbed various things before they headed to Bobby’s room.

As soon as Bobby opened the door to his room, an unrecognizable scent smacked Hyun Ae’s nostrils to the point where she couldn’t help but to react with disgust.

“Hehe…sorry, I was in the process of cleaning up.”

Bobby proceeded to spray the room with some Lysol, making it relatively bearable for Hyun Ae to walk into the room. She quickly glanced around the room, noting the black theme – his black clothing was splattered all over the room as his walls were decorated with famous Korean hip hop artists such as Swings and 1llionaire. However, what surprised her the most was the mound of Pooh themed stuffed animals on Bobby’s bed – Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, etc. She couldn’t help but crack a smile noting the contrast of his room.

Bobby pulled another chair towards his mahogany desk, motioning her to make herself comfortable. She gently sat near the edge of the chair as Bobby sat right next to her as he grabbed his ratty Pooh bear with him and placed it at the center of the desk. Hyun Ae’s eyes glazed over the photos on his desk.

“Who are all of these people in your photos?”

“Ahh, this first one here is a family photo with my parents, brother, and me – it was taken the day I left Korea. This second picture is of my brother’s wedding – he looks a lot like me, right? And the third picture is my aunt’s family.”

Hyun Ae nodded in understanding as she glanced at the clock – it was 5:30.

“Oh, we should probably get started.”

Hyun Ae pulled out her composition book and music notes and looked up to see Bobby making a dorky face with his Pocky sticks.

“Hurhurhur, I’m a walrus.”

Hyun Ae gently smiled as she awkwardly waited for him to finish. Bobby continued to make various faces and imitate multiple animals – by the time he had started imitating a chicken, the clock had turned to 5:45. Hyun Ae couldn’t hold her laughter back at this point, and guffawed loudly at this usually intimidating man.

“Geez, finally! I was running out of ideas!”

Hyun Ae cocked a brow at his statement.

“It took you forever to laugh. You should laugh more, it makes it less awkward to talk to you haha.”

“Oh sorry…I’m usually pretty quiet.”

“Haha, I noticed.”

“Anyway, let’s get started. Do you have any ideas for what we should present for class?”

“I was thinking hip hop.”

Hyun Ae winced at the suggestion as Bobby gauged her reaction.

“HAHAHA. No worries, I was just kidding. I know you don’t really like that genre. I was actually thinking of a meaningful song with some nice beats. Does that sound better?”

Hyun Ae bit her lip as she nodded eagerly.

“That sounds amazing. I actually have some compositions in my book that I made a while back. Maybe we can use one of them?”

Hyun Ae handed her book to Bobby as he curiously looked at each page.

“Interesting…”

Bobby chose one and took out his keyboard to play the melody. He lightly shook his head and switched the page. This continued for a while until he hit the folded up and creased page. Hyun Ae nervously stared at him while watching the clock as he carefully unfolded it.

As soon as Bobby played the melody of “Miss You”, he broke into a big smile.

“Oh, we GOTTA do this one. It’s perfect! We can totally add some heavy beats and instruments into this, giving me a spot to rap and for you to sing! I can totally just imagine it now, we can add some steady beats after the intro, and I can start rapping somet-“

“Can we not rearrange this song,” Hyun Ae bluntly stated, interrupting Bobby’s ideas.

“Ur…why? This song is great. You did a great job composing it. And I swear I won’t make it hip hop sounding or anything!”

“I’d just rather not do this song.”

“Why?”

“I just don’t want to. This piece is for me only.”

“What’s it about?”

“You don’t need to know.”

“But I want to know.”

“Can we just pick another song? It’s past six and I really want to get home before seven.”

“Why so soon? There’s a lot of things you haven’t answered Hyun Ae. If it’s personal to you, I get it, but I would like to know why. This composition is beautiful and I’m not letting it go without a proper explanation of why you don’t want to use it. Come onnnnnn, you can tell me!”

A small fuse blew up in Hyun Ae’s mind. Bobby’s determination infuriated her and all she wanted to do was leave.

“For your information Bobby, WE HAVE A MATH TEST TOMORROW. I know YOU only need like an hour to study for it, but I NEED much longer! So that’s why I want to get home before seven!! We wasted an HOUR due to you trying to make stupid faces. Do you realize how much we could have finished in that one hour??? Just because you can score a good grade on a test without even working hard doesn’t mean that it’s the same for everyone else. Do your parents not have any problem with you always joking around or going out late at night when you should be studying??”

Bobby sat frozen in his seat. He didn’t know what he had done to make Hyun Ae rage at him like this, but he sure wasn’t going to let anyone insult him.

“Hold up now. Calm down. First off, I realize we have a math test tomorrow. Secondly, I’m sorry I didn’t know that you need more time to study for the test, but you could have explained that calmly to me. I assumed you already knew everything because you’re so smart. I know you’re a hard worker – it’s the reason why you’ve always been number one in school, right?

And geez, I’m sorry I TRIED to make you laugh. You’re not exactly the easiest person to approach. Every time I’ve tried to initiate some sort of conversation with you in school, you don’t even turn around the majority of the time. I’m trying to see who the REAL Hyun Ae is, beyond the academic exterior.

Not only that, but I do work hard. You’re just judging me based on what you see on the outside. Just because I hang out with my friends often doesn’t mean I just laze around my room all day. I study at school during my lunch breaks or whenever I get some spare time during the day SO I can have some time to relax with my friends. I don’t see how you can spend the entire day just studying; there’s more to life than that. I have always believed in balancing everything out in my life. Grades aren’t everything – you gotta experience the real world before you start picking up a career.

Lastly, how dare you speak about my parents in that manner? For your information, my parents are in the States right now. I work nonstop trying to raise money by working whatever part time job I can get while trying to audition for a company on top of maintaining my grades. So yeah, that’s what all the “joking around” actually is. I’m trying to raise as much money as soon as possible so my family can live in Korea again. I know they’ve been dying to come back, but they’re having a hard time with finances right now. My parents have supported me since the beginning, and they have put their ENTIRE TRUST in me. I could never be stupid enough to endanger that. Looking at my desk, all you may see is a dirty and torn apart Pooh doll, but this is one of the only things I have from my mother. I’ve had it my entire life and it carries a lot of memories. Don’t YOU have anything like that?”

Bobby finally heaved a big sigh as he finished his rant. His mind felt dizzy from all the talking he had just done. He slowly reached for his Pooh bear and started it lightly.

“I’m sorry that I blew up on you like that, but it hurts that you think of me so badly. I bet I’m just another stupid hip hop wannabe gangster to you. Whatever…if you want to go home now, you can. We can do this another day. We still have like two weeks anyway.”

Hyun Ae’s head had tilted down to where she was staring blankly at her feet. Her eyes glistened with remorse as she listened to Bobby’s history. She knew what she had said was wrong. Feeling the strong tension between them, she slowly started to pack up her stuff. She lightly glanced at the clock – it was getting closer and closer to seven. She desperately wanted to leave, but, she couldn’t do that without a proper apology.

“Listen Bobby…I’m sorry. I didn’t know that you have been doing so much. It’s just…I have always needed a ton of time to ensure that I get a 100 on the test. It’s not that easy for me. Sure, many people always congratulate me for getting A’s, but it’s not that simple. I HAVE to get a 100 on the test. I’m sorry for judging you all these years…I don’t think you’re a wannabe gangster or anything, and I really respect you now for being able to balance all of your jobs and auditions with your school work. It’s sweet that you’re working so hard to bring your family over to Korea. I sincerely apologize.”

With a deep bow to Bobby, she sincerely apologized once more before she slung her backpack over her shoulder to leave.

“You still haven’t answered my question...,” Bobby whispered.

Hyun Ae walked over to the door and stood still.

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes, I do have something like your Pooh bear. It’s that song you just played.”

With that, she silently left and rushed back to the comforts of her own home.

She groaned looking at the clock – it was well past seven and she knew she wouldn’t have time to spare for dinner today.

She quickly dumped out everything from her backpack and started pulling out her math notes. However, the longer she stared at the various integrals and derivatives, the more they became incoherent. Her mind flashed back to the situation that had just taken place less than an hour ago. Bobby’s every word echoed through her brain as his sharp tone pierced her ears once again. She threw her math notes off her desk in frustration as she leaned her head into her propped hands on the desk. Releasing a long sigh, she picked up her notes and turned off her alarm clock – she definitely wasn’t getting any sleep tonight.

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Oof, this took me forever to write haha. Almost 2000 words in this chapter~ hope you guys enjoyed - thanks to those who have subscribed! I'm aiming for a few more chapters to complete this story - no guarantees though. I only planned for this to be about 5 chapters, but it's looking to be about 7 or 8 now haha.

~thucthuc