Christmas in Seoul
6:30. The flashy small screen
turned pink as it started singing a very popular tune. One skinny hand got it
up, stopped the annoying music and disappeared back from where it came,
underneath the flowered blanket. After merely 2 seconds, the blanket flew away.
In the dime light, a slim girly figure rushed its way up to the white door.
She turned on the light. The
bright white tiles made her nicely-shaped eyebrows to bind above her nose. She
rubbed her eyes asking them to open and stay opened, then she stopped in front
of the mirror. She smiled. She spun the water tap, always smiling. She threw
her face three times in her watery palm, and then checked the mirror again.
Afterwards she lumbered her way up to the so called shower, which was nothing
more than a long pipe with two water taps. She spun one of them and released a
blasphemy until she spun the other one too, which made her nod with a smile.
She threw away the long dinosaur-shirt and allowed the hot water to warm her
disheveled head. After several long minutes she was done arranging the pink bow
that held the red hair all together in one rich bun. She smiled one last time
and took a deep breath. She giggled and rushed to the chair that was bravely
holding her 3 pairs of jeans, several long sleeved shirts and some sort of pink
uniform with white waistcloth and long sleeves. She looked for her black boots
under the chair, also finding the black leggings that she immediately put on.
She was ready now. One last glimpse at the small screen put a smile on her face
again.
"Finally I'm ready on
time!" she said out loud, throwing on her long, black overcoat.
The blizzard wind put some red
dots on her face as soon as she stepped outside the building; some melted snow
invaded her drilled boots, but she just
shook her head twice, took a deep freezing breath and started walking
again. She was really excited by the
huge gorgeous young boys posters that hung all over the tallest buildings in
town. All those unknown letters on every window-shop made her forget all about
the discomfort in her shoes and her wide smile froze on her face again. After
crossing 4 times she stopped in front of an enormous building covered in glass.
She bowed politely to the doorkeeper in front, but he merely raised an eyebrow
to her. She lowered her eyes but they hit the reflection of the Korean flag on
a really shiny car hood, which brought back her courage.
"South Korea, I'll do my
best! Fighting!!" she shouted from the bottom of her heart. She smiled
shyly when she realized her fist was up in the air and everyone around her was
staring.
"Fighting!" another soft
voice joined in with a white as the snow fist up next to hers.
"Ah, Ming Yoo!" the girl
said hugging the owner of the white gloves. "I thought you forgot about
me!..."
"How could I ?" Ming Yoo
asked smiling back at her. "You called me 10 times last night to remind me
today it's your first day at work" she said laughing so charmly.
"Ah, yes... I'm so sorry, but
I am so nervous about this... And I really thank you for this opportunity!
Honestly! From the bottom of my heart!” she said bowing deeply.
"Oh, stop that!" Ming
Yoo said grabbing her hand in a warm grip. "It's a bad job and an
underpaid one, but otherwise my dad wouldn't 'have had agreed..." she
blushed trying to release the grip.
"Doesn't matter!" the
girl said trying to hold on the warm glove as much as she possible could
"without you I would've had never be able to leave that f..." she
wanted to say something bad about her country but she suddenly remembered that
in here patriotism and honor for your country were a must, so she quickly
disguised her words: "to live this once of a life time opportunity and I
won't let you down! Gamsahamida!"
"It will be a little rough at
the beginning, but... fighting, right?" Ming Yoo put a smile on her
friend's face.
' "Aish... how helpful
would’ve been some of the Korean interjections..." ' she thought and while
she followed Ming Yoo she promised to herself that starting from today she will
go each day to the library and learn new words.
They reached a nice, clean office
where a nicely dressed fat man welcomed them with a bow... well actually the
bow was only for Ming Yoo, for her it was the same eyebrow lifting as the
doorman did.
' "So this has to be my
boss" ' she talked to herself even though she was trying really hard to
understand his speech and nod once in a while when it looked like he's asking
her if she understood. Well it wasn’t anything too fancy or too complicated
anyway, just a mop, a broom, a vacuum cleaner...last generation vacuum
cleaner... and countless plastic bottles, all gathered in a neat pile inside a
carrier.
' "You're not allowed to use
the stairs, you may clean the room only when the costumers are not inside"
' she aped her fat boss, having fun on her own.
' "The only allowed way to
move through the hotel" ' she said again using a man's voice pushing the
red 'personnel elevator' s key.
After a while, she slowly spun the
yellow cap on a plastic bottle. She
proudly smiled to a row of 7 doors from
her left but the frowned to the other 14 on her right.
“Not even half of them?” she took
a deep sigh and reached for something inside her big waistcloth pocket. She energetically stirred a small bottle of
yogurt and took a big sip. But she had difficulties swallowing it when she
heard the elevator’s ding. She jumped up, bowing at two young women who barely
noticed her. She followed them as they entered one of the already cleaned 7
rooms. She smiled and got back to her yogurt that didn’t looked so appealing
right now, so she just threw it in the small garbage can she was carrying
around in her carrier.
“33 37… 33, 35, 37…” she started
counting.
She stopped in front of the room
3337. She knocked twice, but there was no answer. She took out from her pocket
the big pile of key-cards and pulled it through the locker’s bower. She pushed
the door with her back until she crept inside. Just when she was about to lock
it back, some glass braking noise froze her. She rolled her eyes around as she was looking for
someone to ask what she must do in such situations. Even though her mind told
her to get out of the room, her legs brought her closer to the white door from
where the noise came.
‘ “No, no…” ‘ her mind kept on
saying, but her hand already reached the door’s handle. She spun it around and opened it in one slow
move, but stopped when she heard a roar:
“What the fuck it’s your
problem?!” a man’s voice roared so she stepped inside to discover the guy
kneeled in front of the toilet seat.
Her mouth couldn’t spell any word
and not only because she didn’t understood what the man said because he spoke
in Korean, but also because her eyes were to focused on the shiny shards on the
ground that led to the man’s bleeding hand.
“Oh my God, are you ok?” she rushed to help him.
“Don’t touch me!” the man yelled
again. “Just give me that!!” he pointed with the bleeding hand to the paper
towels on the bathtub’s edge.
Even though she couldn’t
understand the words he said, it wasn’t really difficult to get what he asked
for, so she dart at them. She quickly
flocked some paper in her hand and pushed it on the man’s hand. She rolled the
remaining paper on top of it and helped him up. Even if there were all sort of
sour smells in there, when he reached her height, a sweet, flowered smell
invaded her nostrils making her to take a closer look at him. He seemed fairly
familiar, with his black bangs trying to reach his eyebrows, the dark brown
eyes that withdrew somewhere deep inside their sockets, and the small beautiful
lips that curled up in a pout now. He was pretty tall and that made the way up
to his bed to be much longer and more difficult than it should, but she managed
to get him safe to his brown sheets. He
fell on them and they all crumpled underneath him. She stared at him for a few
minutes, giving him time to fall really asleep.
“How much did you had last night,
boy?” she whispered thinking he wouldn’t hear her while she leaned to gather
the empty bottles on the ground.
“Not that much” his English answer
came from inside the beddings. “What’s
the clock?” he asked in his crooked English.
“Oh…. Umm..” she froze for a while
then quickly spoke “It’s 12.35”. Just when she was about to congratulate
herself for her silence, her mouth spoke without permission: “You should be
having lunch now…”
“I should be out having lunch now”
he spoke in the same time.
She froze again and stared at him.
She would’ve wanted to say something but her eyes got drawn by the paper towels
that colored themselves into some fiery red shade. She gathered up the courage to speak again:
“Sir, may I take a look at your
hand?”
She got her answer through a soft
snore. She smiled pleased and tiptoed to
the bathroom from where she came back with the first aid kit. She gently peeled
the wet paper off of his hand and slowly cleaned it until there was no trace of
blood left. She warped the gauze ribbon on the hand with slow, quiet moves so
she wouldn’t wake him up. She smiled satisfied when she covered the knot with a
small pink patch. She escaped a short swearing word when she threw her eyes on
the ground where the 5 empty bottles laid and a terrible amount of cigarettes’
butt left from long ago the overflowing ashtray. With no other words she started gathering
everything up hiding them in her black plastic bag with the quietest movements
she was capable of. She even swiped away the shards in the bathroom, but the
other half of the glass shelf stuck in the wall and she decided it would’ve
been too noisy to take it down so she just left it there. She put everything in
her carrier and before she left, she stopped to take one last glance at him.
The snoring ceased, leaving the room in a deep silence. She turned around to leave.
“Gajima…” his deep voice got heard
again from somewhere inside the beddings.
“Well, I… “ she tried to say but
this line sounded so familiar that it already started playing over and over in
her mind, adding musical notes too.
“Gajima jeabal…” he said again
without even moving.
“Umm…” she said stepping forward
twice, without really knowing what to do. She got next to his bed but just when
she changed her mind and was ready to quickly leave, he caught her wrist. She
would’ve screamed only if she would’ve remembered how to connect the brains to
her mouth. The only remaining thing to do now was to take a seat next to him
because he was still holding tight on her hand. At first she rolled her eyes
all around, slowly wiping the shy sweat drops on her forehead but his perfect
side-face caught her attention. Her eyes
doubled their size and her heart almost stopped its beatings so much that it
started stinging her left hand.
Without sudden moves she withdrew
her hand from his grip. She looked for her small cellphone inside her big
pocket; with shaky hands she pushed the screen once to access the media menu,
pictures and gulped loudly. She stared at him once again and quickly covered
her mouth with the back of her hand just in time to stop a squeaky “eeep” that
wanted to go out. She counted to tree to inhale and then she had to count again
to exhale since her body seemed like it forgot how to do it on its own. She
browsed through 12-13 pictures of T.O.P’s as the images indicated. She took a
silent deep breath and she slowly tiptoed to the door making sure she won’t be
making any sound at all. She quietly got
out. Once she found herself free, outside the room, she glued her back to the
door, just to allow her breathing to remember how it was supposed to work.
“1,2,3…” she counted again
breathing in.
The elevator’s ding made her
straighten her posture and pull herself up. She drew a nice soft smile on her
face when the doors of the elevator just 6 feet in front opened. She even
wanted to bow politely and say “anyoung hashimnikka” when her heart stopped.
The light blonde fringes covered shortly the dark shades as they approached her
in slow motion.
“G…D…” she muttered getting a grip
on the door case behind her back because the floor under her feet suddenly
turned into jelly.
“Umm…may I?” the blond guy asked
using his most killer smile.
Actually he just barely moved up
the corners of his mouth, and because she wouldn’t move he pointed to the door
behind her and asked again, this time in English.
“Oh… sure…” she babbled hurrying
to clean the path for him.
“Hyung, are you there?” he knocked
twice, without taking notice of the girl who froze again just a couple of steps
further. “Hyung?” he tried to open the door. He quickly turned to look for the
young maid thinking he lost her, but instead he couldn’t restrain his laughter
when he found her big bright eyes staring at him.
“Is he in?” he asked trying his
best not to even smile anymore.
“Umm… I’m… I’m sorry… I don’t
speak Korean…” she merely mumbled.
“Jeongmal yo?” he said taking off
his glasses, killing her even more. “Umm… Hyung, is he inside?” he spelled as
if he was talking to some aliens freshly landed on our planet.
“Hyung?” she said trying to
imitate his speaking. His hand that was
now pointing again towards the door helped her understand. “Aah… hyung!” she
said toning up the last ‘g’.
“Aniyo, it’s a soft ‘g’” he said
in a serious tone, piercing her again.
“Oh… yes… I’m sorry. Yes, your…
friend, he’s inside, yes…” she answered lowering her eyes.
“So… Can you?...” he made her
understand he wanted to get the door opened.
“Sure!...” she rushed to push the
key-card through the door’s bower.
“It’s ‘joesonghamnida’ and ‘hyung’
“ he said trying hard not to smile. “Why do they even hire people like you? You
can’t even speak…” he wanted to say more, but her voice cut him off.
“Maybe for the foreigners that
can’t understand your English…” she answered in a split, shocking herself too.
The door broke loose and she
quickly bowed to him, darted behind her cart and sped to her ‘’personnel only’’
elevator.
Jiyong stood there, in the door’s
way and finally released the smile he made efforts to hide until now. The
whining inside the room though made him rush in.
“Hyung, are you ok?” he couldn’t
help but smile when he found his friend lying in bed, holding onto his own head
as if it would run if he’ll let it go. He swooped next to him. “You suddenly
fled this morning” he sat up in bed to look at him.
“Mmm” was the only thing coming
out from his friend’s mouth after he shoved his face underneath a pillow.
“We gotta stop drinking like
this…” Jiyong said laughing. “Honestly you ain’t got the age for this anymore…”
he laughed even harder.
Seunghyun’s answer came again as a
hum from under the pillow.
“Omo, hyung! What happened to
you?!” Jiyong gave up his smile when Seunghyun stretched out and tried to
silence him covering his mouth with the boarded hand.
“Huh?” Seunghyun finally let the
pillow slide off revealing just one eye. “Aissi… yeah… I fell” he gathered all
his power to sit up. He crossed his legs under him and stared at his hand
smiling softly.
“Aissi, I’m so tired!” Ji yawned
and lay next to him. “We really overdone it last night…” he mumbled.
“We really overdo it every night…”
Seunghyun pat Ji’s head and shuffled out of the bed. He stopped in front of the
big, thick drape. Using just one finger he glanced outside. The bright sunrays
burnt through his eyes but they didn’t manage to steal any reaction from him.
He only sighed in resign. He went to the big closet. He browsed though it more
asleep than awake. In a matter of minutes some dark sunglasses completed his
outfit making it look really cool. He pushed his hair backwards and took a deep
sigh. Before he left, he glimpsed one more time at Ji who curled up in bed, in
the fetus posture.
“Sleep tight, Sleeping beauty” he
whispered and got lost behind the entrance door.
“Choi Seunghyun-ssi!” a squeaky male voice approached him as soon as he
closed the door behind him.
“Ah, Lee Baek-ssi!” Seunghyun quickly bowed politely trying to conceive
an apology speech for his over an hour lunch delay.
“Ah, Choi Seunghyun-ssi I am so happy to bump into you! I am really, so
deeply sorry I wasn’t able to come at out lunch meeting today!” the man said
bowing even lower. “It really didn’t rest on me…” he kept on bowing. “Omo!” he
suddenly stopped “You waited for me until this late hour?”
“I…” Seunghyun tried to speak.
“If I’m not too bold, may we brunch in 30 minutes and reschedule our
interview?” Mr. Lee said bowing again.
“Umm… sure” Seunghyun smiled really happy for how things turned out, but
most of all the word ‘brunch’ made him really startle since he hadn’t had any
meal just yet.
The girl curled down next to her cart and she simply stared at the empty
bottles from Seunghyun’s room. Her smile was still frozen on her face and her
eyes were still bloodshot with strange sparkles running through them.
“Agassi!” her manager’s voice brutally torn her away from dreamland.
“Sir! Umm… gwajangnim…” she jumped up, wildly brushing her waistcloth
and bowed several times.
In pretty weak English the manager remembered the hotel’s conduct rules
and God knows what else he might’ve said in there, because she lost her focus
when Seunghyun’s sweet perfume invaded her space. She spotted him passing right
behind the manager, but he didn’t even glimpsed towards her. She blushed and
lowered her eyes to the ground, almost crying.
The manager thought he was the reason why she started crying, and he
felt really bad about it.
“Look, I know it has to be difficult for you…” he said slowly touching
her shoulder.
The manager funny accent caught Seunghyun’s attention. He turned around
to look at him but all he could see was a somewhat fat man cheering up a maid.
He softly smiled caressing the pink patch on his hand as if it was a cute
stuffed animal. His Bohemian state of mind was gruesomely smashed by Ji’s loud
voice.
“Yah, what’s up??” Jiyong shouted almost jumping on top of him.
“What’s up with you?” Seunghyun asked in a serious tone.
“Mian…” Jiyong cooled down “Why you’re angry?”
“I’m not angry, I’m hungry!” Seunghyun pouted.
“Let’s grab something to eat!” Ji
caught his hand.
“I can’t. I have a meeting in 20 minutes…”
“The one for the magazine?”
“Yeah…” he answered in low voice. He started walking towards his room
but seeing he wasn’t followed, he also stopped. “You’re not coming?” he asked Ji pointing to
the door.
“Ani! I’m going downstairs to have lunch” Jiyong smiled. “The boys
called me, otherwise I would still be sleeping…” he started explaining but
Seunghyun’s lost eyes made him stop. He rolled around looking for the reason
and he found it in the young maid’s big eyes. She was standing still in the
same place where her manager left her after their little ‘chat’. After her boss
tried to calm her down, he left and she honestly wanted to follow him but her
eyes met Seunghyun’s and she simply froze. Now they were staring one at the
other.
“Yah! ‘Non speaking’ girl!” Ji wanted to continue on their discussion
from earlier but his senior’s steps cut him off.
Seunghyun walked up to her. When he had less than half of a foot to
reach her, he simply stopped and took a deep bow.
“Kamsahmnida!” he said a little amused by the girl’s huge eyes.
“That means ‘thank you’ “ Jiyong grabbed her shoulders from behind and
whispered into her ear.
“Mm…” she answered without realizing “I know what it means, but why?”
she whispered back.
Just when she was about to find out the reason, a squeaky voice bothered
the three of them:
“Ah! Choi Seunghyun-ssi!” the round man from earlier ran towards them,
extending his hand like he was ready for one of the well-known western
greetings.
“Ah…” Seunghyun tried to remember the man’s name but he failed mostly
because his eyes were discreetly following the girl as she was getting lost
behind the elevator’s closing door. He
smiled at Jiyong who’s posture didn’t changed at all – he was still resting his
hands on some imaginary shoulders. They both smiled and while Ji revised his
position, Seunghyun stretched out his hand to greet the smiling man.
“Choi Seunghyun-ssi, are you ready?” the man asked Seunghyun after they
shook hands and took a short bow.
“Umm… Yes! Yes!” Seunghyun finally remembered that he had agreed to take
the new interview. He said goodbye to Jiyong, took a last glance at the
elevator she used to disappear and followed the man with a shy smile.
“Aish! This is not happening!” Seunghyun whined opening his room’s door.
“I think I’ll just order something to eat… It’s already past 5 and I haven’t
ate anything!...” he said entering really disappointed that his ‘brunch’ turned
out to be just a cup something sweet to drink..
Well, at least it was a good interview. He really did had fun… and just
one banana smoothie… He threw his coat on the armchair next to the small coffee
table and he allowed his body to free fall on the extremely soft and silky bed.
He wasn’t yet asleep but he just couldn’t move not even to make himself more
comfortable. He just smiled in resign and closed his eyes but in less than one
second he curled up in the fetus posture.
“The hell are you doing here?!!” her mind shouted as loud as she could,
but since the lips didn’t released it, no one could ever hear it, not even her
hand that rolled the round handle and the boor burst out open in total silence.
She peeked inside. She had hoped that he won’t be there, but the loud breathing
made her step inside really quietly. Just to make sure if he was ok! she said
to calm down her screaming survival instincts. She smiled seeing his way of
sleeping. She rolled her eyes around, but except the bed anything else was just
the way she left it this morning. She slowly rolled to leave the room, when his
voice stoned her.
“You could at least cover me up. I’m freezing in here…” he mumbled
without moving.
The girl stopped in front of the door being too afraid to even move. She
just prayed that her heart ‘noises’ won’t wake him up. Everything turned really
quiet, so she though she just imagined it. She took a quick sigh and rolled the
door’s handle again.
A big hand caught the door when it creaked a little open and froze her
to the point that she actually felt her heart slowing down its beats.
“You know, I really meant it…” Seunghyun said using his other hand to
ruffle his back head. “I think I'll get a cold. I’m really feeling chilly
lately. Please close the door!” he said pushing the door back, closing it.
She stood there, petrified, without even moving one inch.
“Are you ok?” Seunghyun asked trying to get a glimpse at the girl who
couldn’t dare to move. “Oh! “Ganhosa” he
said taking a step back to bow politely.
“Huh?...” were the only letters capable of getting out of her lips.
“Nurse…” he translated into English, smiling.
How could he possible know what she was studying for?! She looked at him
with big, bright eyes and time seemed to stop, freezing everything around, even
his smile.
Soon enough, minutes turned into
an eternity for her... a wonderful eternity sprinkled with rainbows and flying
unicorns. The answer of any question in the Universe popped up into his eyes
making her to just keep staring. He smiled awkwardly and got ready to talk when
a noise cut him off… again. Her eyes turned into merely two horizontal lines
and red big spots started appearing on Seunghyun’s face as a loud growl from
his middle part of the body started being heard. He quickly covered his stomach
with both of his hands, asking it to shut it, but it wouldn’t listen: it made
even louder noises.
She couldn’t restrain a giggle
which turned into a real laugher when he started looking like Bashful from Snow
White.
“Yah! It’s not nice to laugh at
starving people!” he tried saying in a serious tone but the growls wouldn’t
allow him to. “Mian haeyo” he barely said in between his laughs.
“Oh… mian haeyo… I really
shouldn’t laugh at you…” she also tried to say. “ok, ok… I’m stopping right
now…” she covered her mouth with both of her hands.
She wasn’t really laughing about
him, it was just a normal reaction when meeting one’s idol, but her rather
squeaky laughter burst out his laughter too.
“Ok, ok…. Time to calm down…” she
managed to say breathing heavily, checking her already burning cheeks, but one
single look to him triggered another session of out of control laughter from
both parts.
“Aissi…Jin jang!” she whispered
mostly and slightly slapped her face several times. “I’m really sorry” she
started again wiping the sweat on her forehead with the back of her hands
“sometimes when I’m really tired I get this laughter crisis…”
‘It’s ok” Seunghyun answered. “You
made me laugh today and I am grateful for it” he smiled trying to hold back his
laugh.
“Look…” she said shoving her hands
inside the big waistcloth’s pocket.
“You look like a mama kangaroo” he
said starting a new laughter tantrum. “Mian hae! Mian hae!”… he said holding on
his talking stomach again.
“Here, have these!” she took out a
couple of yogurt plastic cans.
“What are those?”
“Poison. Eat them!”
Seunghyun wouldn’t dare to take
them, so she opened one of them in just one move.
“You gotta feed that monster” she
smiled stretching her hand out to him. “It was just a joke. You can drink it!”
“But… it has fruits in it…” he
skeptically looked inside the can.
“Yeah, but you won’t choke on
them” she said bringing it closer to his mouth.
He grabbed it and drank it all
closing tight his eyes.
“Whaa! This is good!” he grabbed
the second one and drank it all at once again.
‘I know!” she smiled widely.
“Where do you take them from?” he
asked chasing around the can a couple of strawberry hunks.
“Hmm… from a really special place”
she answered amused by his actions.
“The store down stairs?” he asked
chewing really pleased.
“Ne…” she answered and again took
out other two small cans.
They were standing on the floor,
with their legs crossed underneath them, staring out the big windows at the
massive snow fall.
“It’s so beautiful…” Seunghyun
said all of a sudden, switching the conversation they were already having.
“Mmm…” she said without taking her
eyes off of the window.
“Umm…” he made her look at him
“about tomorrow…” he syllabified mostly, gathering up in a perfect aligned
tower the entire 8 yogurt cans.
“What about it?” she couldn’t
understand.
“Well… it’s Christmas’ Eve and…
you’re definitely…”
“…going to do my job” she smiled.
“And the day after tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that
too…” she got up grabbing the long tower
“and I hope I’ll be doing it for as long as I’ll need” she concluded
when he caught her wrist making the cans to shiver and almost fall.
“Wha! Care…ful…” she swallowed
back her words when he stared at her. “Wae… wae… I have something on my face?”
she tried to speak but she had to shut it because she feared that her voice
will soon show its tremble.
It got quiet. So quiet that one
could actually hear the snowflakes hitting the glass of the windows.
‘Does he know?’ she asked herself
without daring to even blink, fearing that if she’ll do, she’ll get up from
another wonderful dream. ‘No, he couldn’t know…’ she thought again. ‘This
really has to be a dream…’ she kept on talking in her mind especially when he
caught her face in his big, warm hands.
He looked at her as if he was
trying to read her deepest, darkest thoughts. She couldn’t feel him inside her
mind just yet, but she couldn’t also feel her heart beats any longer. Her legs
started turning numb when their noses almost touched and her mouth turned dry
as Sahara on a summer day. Her lips drew away one from the other in an attempt
to grab some lifesaving piece of air, or probably in an attempt to take a taste
of his wonderful smiling lips… whichever would happen first.
‘Jingle bells, jingle bells,
jingle all the way…’ the gleeful ringtone put a gruesome end to this magical
moment.
She quickly blinked several times
to hide the tears in her eyes and he turned away too.
“Answer it…” he said without
looking at her.
“Ah…ne… “ she heavily looked for
her cellphone inside the big pocket, making him to smile again. “Oh, God!” she
whispered and quickly moved her finger on the green image of the green handset.
“Ne, gwajang – nim!” she said louder than she should have. “Aniyo… I’m still
here… Yes, I’m cleaning… Yes sir…” she forced herself to answer as short as she
could so she wouldn’t embarrass Seunghyun, who was again staring and her, with
his hands deep in his pockets.
‘Jingle bells, jingle bells…’ was
heard again and Seunghyun’s eyes suddenly doubled.
She looked at him with big eyes
too, as he quickly answered his phone.
“Yeah!” he answered a little rough
but immediately softened it “Omma! Ne…” he smiled shyly.
“I’ll be right there!” she said
waving to Seunghyun.
He silently grabbed her wrist
while talking to his mother, but she shook her head, signaling she really had
to leave. She set herself free and left but not before putting another 2 yogurt
cans on his bed.
“Eat well and sleep longer!” she
whispered before disappearing behind the white door.
“Yeah… be right there, be right
there… but where?” she spoke out loud when she closed the door behind her. She
began walking while she checked up her face. It was pretty hot and most
probable already covered in a bright shades of red. She smiled and took a
couple of running steps before she hit someone.
“OH! Jeez! Mian! Mian haeyo!” she
quickly grabbed a napkin to try stop the black coffee to reach the light jeans.
“Yah! Cut it off!” Jiyong shouted
when her napkin reached the first some sensitive parts.
He caught both of her hands and
raised them up in the air to make her stop, but they both froze for a couple of
minutes.
“Che… chesonghamnida…” she said
releasing herself from his powerful grip. “I’m so sorry, sir…” she felt the
need to add since she wasn’t sure about her Korean pronunciation.
“Yah, ‘non speaking girl’! Almost
perfect!” he said smiling proud. “If you’re
gonna also say ‘thank you’ in Korean I might even ki…” he started saying
but her whispered “Kamsahmnida” brought an even wider smile on his face and he
suddenly grabbed her waist, smashing his soft lips onto hers.
One single patter cut through the
silence of the big, long hall.
“Yah! Jin jang!” Jiyong said
protecting his slapped cheek with both of his hands.
“Being rich doesn’t give you the
right to go around randomly kissing people!” she yelled raising her hand up
again.
Ji got ready to dodge another
possible slap but he actually barely managed to hide his giggle.
“Yah, non-speaking-girl!” he
quickly regained his straight posture when she turned around to leave.
She stopped thinking that this was
the moment when he’ll apologize, but his annoyingly calm voice hurt her ear
once again:
“What am I supposed to do with my
ruined clothes? Does the hotel’s management face up to this?” he said hiding
his playful giggle in a cold grin.
“Mwo?!” she rolled around to face
him again, but she had to take a step back because they almost kissed again.
“My stage shirt” he answered as
calm as always. “I hope you guys can clean up coffee stains” he barely kept his
poker face when he started unbuttoning his shirt.
“Wha… what are you doing?!” she
looked at him astonished.
“Here you go!” Jiyong said handing
her his shirt. “I’ll need it back by tomorrow, at 6 pm” he added before he got
lost behind one of the white doors, dressed in only one as stained undershirt.
She couldn’t see where he went because she was
too busy to curse him. She crumpled the white shirt and she was about to throw
it somewhere in her cart but touching it better made her to quickly fold it as
careful as she could.
“Damn, this shirt makes more money
than I’ll do in 2 years!” she said pushing the round silver key of the
elevator.
Seunghyun was still talking to his
mother when the door got opened. He hurried to see who entered, hoping she came
back.
“Oh my God!” he said bursting into
laughter. “What in the world happened to you?” he asked laughing. “No, mother,
I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to Jiyong-gi. He’s wearing only his
undershirt and a fiery red slap on his left cheek…” he explained to his mother
while following Ji throwing himself on his bed. “A..ani!! those are mine!” he
rushed to save his yogurts from Ji’s hungry hands.
“Omma!!!” Ji shouted grabbing a
hold on Seunghyun’s hand trying to reach his telephone. “Omma! He’s having
sweets and he won’t share!”
“I’m not sure, mom” Seunghyun set
himself free and managed to save just one can. “I think he’s drunk”…
“I’m not drunk!” Ji whined opening
his ‘prey’.
Seunghyun sighed once and stepped
towards the big windows. Suddenly his conversation fell on a second place.
Something on the streets drew all of his attention, so he only answered in monosyllabic
words. His mind was too busy to follow ‘his young maid’ gathering a hand full
of white snow from a car. she wasn’t dressed, she was wearing just her uniform
and right now she was trying to warm up her hands, rubbing them on her hands.
She was looking left and right until a man came.
Seunghyun almost went up the
window to get a closer look but when the man gave her just a big colored box,
he smiled and quietly left the window when she also got back inside. He turned
around to check on Jiyong, but he wasn’t there anymore, so he just smiled and
carried on with his conversation with his mother.
“Who can bring the big, heavy
boxes? Oh, oh, we know! Let’s make ‘round eyes’ get them!” the girl was
mumbling without seeing where she was walking.
Both of the boxes she was caring
were big enough to cover up her entire face so she could only see her shoes stepping around. That’s why she couldn’t see she was about to
hit one absent minded Jiyong. But she felt it and heard it.
“Oh… chesonghamnida!” she quickly
said looking at the white boots in front of her.
Some warm hands touched hers and
they took over the boxes.
“Oh, this is heavy!” Ji said
sighing.
Because the voice sounded
familiar, she took a step to het right to look at her ‘savior’.
“Aissi!” she grabbed her boxes
back, but he wouldn’t let them go.
“By the way, non-speaking-girl,”
Ji started walking “”If you bump into me a couple more times you’ll get pretty
good at speaking Korean”.
“Yeah, thank you!” she said trying
again to recover her boxes, but Ji was already walking towards the elevator.
“What floor?” he asked waiting for
the elevator to come.
“Basement” she answered without
looking at him.
“Are you still upset because of
the kiss?” Ji asked placing the boxes inside the elevator.
“That’s what you call a kiss?!”
the girl asked suddenly piercing his gaze.
She pushed the ‘0’ key and waited
for the doors to close. When she thought she got rid of him, his long, skinny
fingers stopped the doors from closing. He stepped in and smiled pushing again
the key.
“Are you free on Christmas Eve?”
he suddenly asked.
“Mwo?” she almost chocked on air.
“Christmas Eve. Are you free?”
“Aniyo. I’m working…” she answered
trying to look unimpressed.
“Yeah… me too… but only from 3 to
7. How about you? When you’re free?”
The elevator’s ‘ding’ cut him off.
“Ah juh sshi, are you trying to
ask me out?” the girl defiantly smiled.
“Uhm.. well…” Ji said a little
disappointed that his ‘bad boy cover’ was blown.
“Girls, she’s here!” they both
could hear a voice just before the elevator’s door to open. A dark haired maid
was waiting in front of the doors. As soon as they opened, she froze.
“Omo…” she said staring at Jiyong
who understood her reaction and lowered his eyes and upper body into a shy bow.
“Omo! Omo!...” the dark haired one
could only mumble when other 4 women gathered around to see the reason of her
reaction.
“Omo! GD!” one of them ran inside
the elevator to hug Jiyong.
“Non-speaking-girl, help!” Ji
whispered trying to deal with all the 10 hands trying to grab him in a tight
hug.
“Yah! Noona!” she shouted pushing
the dark haired one away from Jiyong. “Help me with this, will you?” she put
one of the boxes in her arms and so she did with the other one that almost
reached Jiyong. “Now let’s go! Gwajang
– nim ‘s waiting for us!” she said pushing everyone outside the elevator. She
quickly pushed any key of the elevator and stepped outside too. She took a deep
bow as the doors started closing.
“Gomawo!” Ji smiled. “See you
tomorrow around 7!” he shouted before he disappeared behind the doors.
“Yah! Round-eyes!” the dark haired
maid put the big box back in her arms. “Who are you to know G-Dragon ?!”
“Why did you pushed me out??” said
another one. “I could’ve ask for his autograph!”…
‘Mian haeyo, girls!” she tried to
take deep bows but it was rather impossible with that box in her arm, so she
simply followed them without answering to any other question, request or quarrel.
“Aish… I hope she won’t get in
trouble because of me…” Ji said staring at his reflection in the shiny doors
when he could hear all the screaming of the girls. He took a step forward to
touch the ‘0’ key again when he almost stepped on something. He bent over to
gather it from the ground and his eyes doubled. He was now staring at one of
the yogurt cans he devoured in Seunghyun’s room. He shoved it deep in his
pocket with a long sigh.
“And what’s that ‘’see you at 7’’
about?!” the questions wouldn’t stop flowing over.
“You’re going out with GD?!” one
of them shouted.
“Anieyo!” the girl defended
herself. “He wishes…”
“HE WISHES?!!” all the other
almost shouted all at once.
‘What’s with all this fuss?” the
manager asked when he heard them coming. “Stop all the nuisance and come over
here faster!”
He wouldn’t allow them to say any
word so they all had to help him with the huge Christmas tree he was fighting
to get outside a room.
“But how are we supposed to carry
this monster up to the main hall??” the dark haired one whined again.
“With these!” the man answered
making her to put her hand on the big tree. “This year I think we can win!” he
said really proud. “I chose it myself…” he kept on babbling while they all
grabbed a hand on the tree.
After merely two hours the really
tall tree was beautifully decorated and perfectly complemented the main hall.
The manager laughed really loud.
“Aissi! This is what I call a well
done job! I really do have an eye for what’s beautiful!” he said making all the
girls scoff.
“Yah! You ungrateful girls!” he
shouted. “Stop whining and gather round!” he said pointing to the Christmas
tree to make sure he was understood by everyone. He took out his camera and
took a picture.
“Now, let’s switch places! New
girl, come here!” he called and the girl immediately took over the camera and
started making tones of pictures.
It all turned quiet now. The
pictures were made, the Christmas tree was already brightening up the main
guest hall and the snowflakes were calmly falling from the dark sky.
The girl was silently walking on
the scantily peopled sideways living this past day all over again. She didn’t
even saw Seunghyun when he hurried to take the small nicely warped box from the
hands of the store clerk and ran after her.
The meetings she had with both
Jiyong and Seunghyun, the Christmas tree’s decorating and the camera’s flashes
somehow brought back memories from her mother country and with it, a tear
escaped her eyes. She squeezed the coat better on her body while several other
tears followed the initial one until one finger stopped them. She froze in
place when she realized it wasn’t her finger. She quickly blinked to chase away
the remaining tears and looked for the owner of the finger.
“Are you ok?” Seunghyun asked when
she couldn’t even spell one word.
“Mmm…” she managed to say rolling
around to make sure she left the hotel.
‘Did he followed me?’ she wanted
to start a conversation with herself but his thick voice snapped her out of it:
“Did they make you feel
embarrassed?” he tried to sound as accurate as he could.
“Huh? Aniyo…” she quickly lied.
"Then why are you
crying?" he asked smiling lightly.
‘Because you’re right here in
front of me!’ her mind shouted remembering how she deleted all the hundreds of
pictures she had with him in her cell phone and how she changed the ‘Doom dada’
(his latest hit) ringtone with ‘Jingle bells’ this morning before going to
work.
“You know, us Koreans, we are not that bad but
it’s really rare to see a foreigner around here…” he misinterpreted her silence
as an ‘yes’ to his first question and he managed to explain in a quite good English.
"Oh, no, really they didn't
do anything..." she said trying to hold back her tears.
“Come on, I’ll take you home!” he said smiling
mercifully.
"Aniyo... it's no
need..." she quickly said because she wouldn't want him to see where she
had to live.
"I insist" he put his
arm over her shoulders.
It seemed like even the snowflakes
melted before they could reach his smile, how could she resist it?!
“Do you miss home?” he asked
suddenly but he instantly wished he wouldn’t when her answer came through some
pitchy sobs and long drips of tears. After three steps he made her stop and
simply hugged her tight. They spent about 2 whole minutes like that. She kept
her face hidden in his chest, crying like there was no tomorrow and he caressed
her head easily.
“Mian haeyo…” suddenly came from
somewhere inside his chest.
“What for?” he asked softly.
“Because you had to witness…
this…” she said slowly pushing herself away from him, wiping her tears off.
“Feeling better?...” he asked
stretching out his arm so she could grab it.
“Ne…” she answered ashamed.
“You’re sure?” he said placing her
hand on his arm.
“Mhm…”
“Your hands are so cold!” he said
smiling, making her blush even more.
“I only have to cross these three
streets and I’m home…” she tried to explain the absence of her gloves.
Indeed, after several steps they
were facing a tasteless grey door. She sighed discreetly and turned the key
inside the locker.
“Um…” she said blushing again
“…this is my lever for now…” she hid her eyes on the old looking rug. She took
off her coat and carefully placed it on top of the pile from the already
overflown chair.
“Uhm… may I bring you some… hot
coco” she asked seeing that he won’t take off his coat but neither he’ll turn
around to leave. “…or …some plain water…?” she resigned herself with a short
sigh.
“Where’s your Christmas tree?” he
asked after rolling his eyes around the room.
“I don’t have one…” she answered
bitterly. ‘I can’t afford one’ she thought for herself, but he also understood
it.
“If it’s not too much trouble, I
would like a coco, please” he said looking for a place to put his little
present box until he’ll take off his coat. He copied her and carefully placed
it over hers.
Even though the room was smaller
than his restroom and it didn’t had anything else but a simple bed, a table and
two chairs that served as closets, it
was really neat and clean. He looked for a place on the floor to sit when she
giggled.
“You know you may actually sit on
the bed. It’s clean, you know?”
“Ani! That’s not it!” he rushed to
put an end to this misunderstanding but she already left for the small pot.
She turned on the gas cooker and after
placing the pot on it, she took from a small shelf two mugs. She put them on
the edge of the small uncovered sink.
He followed her without a word
making everything twice as awkward.
“Careful, it’s really hot!” she
said handing him the mug with the penguin holder.
“Yah, pingu!” he smiled really
pleased. “I just love penguins!” he explained to her big eyes. “Oh, wait a
minute!” he said quickly letting the mug on the small table and taking the gift
instead.
‘When did that got here?’ she
thought but she simply smiled when he faced her again, blushing.
“Umm… it’s not too much… but… I
just thought it will fit you nicely…” he said giving her a beautifully warped gift.
“What is this?” she wouldn’t take it.
“Please! It’s for thanking you…”
he said pointing to his bandage on his hand.
“Um… thank you! Kamsahmnida…” she
said receiving it with shaky hands. “May I…”
“Open it…” he spoke in the same
time with her.
“Ne…” she smiled really shy,
trying to not make a fool of herself because her hand were too shaky and she
wouldn’t want to rip off the paper.
Seunghyun patiently waited for her
to open the gift while he chid himself for his immature behavior her clumsiness
made him smile but he wouldn’t want to make her feel embarrassed so he quickly
hid his face in his big, penguin hot mug.
“I love them!!” she said putting
on the new pair of black gloves.
“It’s really nothing much but… “
“No, really! I really love them!!”
she smiled wide caressing the red lotus flower on them. “They’re really
perfect!” she said and all of a sudden
she jumped crossing her arms around his neck, hugging him tight, even kissing
his cheek.
He didn’t had a chance to react
because she realized what she was doing quick enough, so she instantly let him
go and grabbed her steamy mug, sipping the hot coco a little too fast… at least
now she had an excuse for her boiling blood…
Seunghyun caught her wrist with
one hand, while the other hand took the mug and put it on the table next to them. He dragged her
closer and closer until their noses met. He looked like he wanted to get inside
her and maybe he even would’ve had if “Jingle bells” wouldn’t start jollying it
around. His upper jaw twitched visibly and his eyes rolled angrily.
“I’m really starting to hate this
melody…” he muttered and waited for her to answer her phone. “Oh…” he said when
she quickly showed it wasn’t hers the one ringing. “Yeoboseyo!” he said shyly
when she pointed him to answer.
“Where are you, man?!” he could
hear Ji’s voice screaming on the other side. Luckily they were talking in
Korean so he could smile widely and ask “The hell do you want now?”
“You said you’re going for a
little fresh air!” Ji answered laughing. “You took it all??”
“Mwo?” Seunghyun kept his smile
on.
“It’s been 2 hours!” Ji
enlightened his senior.
“Jinjja?” he answered throwing a
glance out on the small window and looked after the girl as she slowly gathered
the cups and took them back in the kitchen. He sighed deeply, the maigic of
this night was torn. He exchanged a couple of other words on the phone and by
the time he was done, she came back empty handed, smiling.
“It’s ok” she said handing him his
coat.
“I’m really sorry… jeongmal mianhaeyo…” he said putting his coat
on without knowing what else he could say. He simply took a deep bow and exited
the door, but he regained his smile when he heard her thin voice:
“See you tomorrow…”
No, wait! That’s not what she
meant to say!! She wanted to say “Good bye” but her lips got a will of their
own!
“Ne!” he answered back, taking a
second, faster bow.
She turned all red in a matter of
1 and a half second and quickly closed the door. She leaned on it and slowly glided down,
covering her cheeks with her hands and smiling with tears on her face.
The meetings she had with both Jiyong and
Seunghyun, the Christmas tree’s decorating and the camera’s flashes somehow
brought back memories from her mother country and with it, a tear escaped her
eyes. She squeezed the coat better on her body while several other tears
followed the initial one until one finger stopped them. She froze in place when
she realized it wasn’t her finger. She quickly blinked to chase away the remaining
tears and looked for the owner of the finger.
“Are you ok?” Seunghyun asked when
she couldn’t even spell one word.
“Mmm…” she managed to say rolling
around to make sure she left the hotel.
‘Did he followed me?’ she wanted
to start a conversation with herself but his thick voice snapped her out of it:
“Did they make you feel
embarrassed?” he tried to sound as accurate as he could.
“Huh? Aniyo…” she quickly lied.
‘Because you’re right here in
front of me!’ her mind shouted remembering how she deleted all the hundreds of
pictures she had with him in her cell phone and how she changed the ‘Doom dada’
ringtone with ‘Jingle bells’ this morning before going to work.
“You know, us Koreans, we are not that bad but
it’s really rare to see a foreigner around here…” he misinterpreted her silence
as an ‘yes’ to his first question and he managed to explain in a quite good English.
"Oh, no, really they didn't
do anything..." she said trying to hold back her tears.
“Come on, I’ll take you home!” he said smiling
mercifully.
"Aniyo... it's no
need..." she quickly said because she wouldn't want him to see where she
had to live.
"I insist" he put his
arm over her shoulders.
It seemed like even the snowflakes
melted before they could reach his smile, how could she resist it?!
“Do you miss home?” he asked
suddenly but he instantly wished he wouldn’t when her answer came through some
pitchy sobs and long drips of tears. After three steps he made her stop and
simply hugged her tight. They spent about 2 whole minutes like that. She kept
her face hidden in his chest, crying like there was no tomorrow and he caressed
her head easily.
“Mian haeyo…” suddenly came from
somewhere inside his chest.
“What for?” he asked softly.
“Because you had to witness…
this…” she said slowly pushing herself away from him, wiping her tears off.
“Feeling better?...” he asked
stretching out his arm so she could grab it.
“Ne…” she answered ashamed.
“You’re sure?” he said placing her
hand on his arm.
“Mhm…”
“Your hands are so cold!” he said
smiling, making her blush even more.
“I only have to cross these three
streets and I’m home…” she tried to explain the absence of her gloves.
Indeed, after several steps they
were facing a tasteless grey door. She sighed discreetly and turned the key
inside the locker.
“Um…” she said blushing again
“…this is my lever for now…” she hid her eyes on the old looking rug. She took
off her coat and carefully placed it on top of the pile from the already
overflown chair.
“Uhm… may I bring you some… hot
coco” she asked seeing that he won’t take off his coat but neither he’ll turn
around to leave. “…or …some plain water…?” she resigned herself with a short
sigh.
“Where’s your Christmas tree?” he
asked after rolling his eyes around the room.
“I don’t have one…” she answered
bitterly. ‘I can’t afford one’ she thought for herself, but he also understood
it.
“If it’s not too much trouble, I
would like a coco, please” he said looking for a place to put his little
present box until he’ll take off his coat. He copied her and carefully placed
it over hers.
Even though the room was smaller
than his restroom and it didn’t had anything else but a simple bed, a table and
two chairs that served as closets, it
was really neat and clean. He looked for a place on the floor to sit when she
giggled.
“You know you may actually sit on
the bed. It’s clean, you know?”
“Ani! That’s not it!” he rushed to
put an end to this misunderstanding but she already left for the small pot.
She turned on the gas cooker and
after placing the pot on it, she took from a small shelf two mugs. She put them
on the edge of the small uncovered sink.
He followed her without a word
making everything twice as awkward.
“Careful, it’s really hot!” she
said handing him the mug with the penguin holder.
“Yah, pingu!” he smiled really
pleased. “I just love penguins!” he explained to her big eyes. “Oh, wait a
minute!” he said quickly letting the mug on the small table and taking the gift
instead.
‘When did that got here?’ she
thought but she simply smiled when he faced her again, blushing.
“Umm… it’s not too much… but… I
just thought it will fit you nicely…” he said giving her a beautifully warped gift.
“What is this?” she wouldn’t take it.
“Please! It’s for thanking you…”
he said pointing to his bandage on his hand.
“Um… thank you! Kamsahmnida…” she
said receiving it with shaky hands. “May I…”
“Open it…” he spoke in the same
time with her.
“Ne…” she smiled really shy,
trying to not make a fool of herself because her hand were too shaky and she
wouldn’t want to rip off the paper.
Seunghyun patiently waited for her
to open the gift while he chid himself for his immature behavior her clumsiness
made him smile but he wouldn’t want to make her feel embarrassed so he quickly
hid his face in his big, penguin hot mug.
“I love them!!” she said putting
on the new pair of black gloves.
“It’s really nothing much but… “
“No, really! I really love them!!”
she smiled wide caressing the red lotus flower on them. “They’re really
perfect!” she said and all of a sudden
she jumped crossing her arms around his neck, hugging him tight, even kissing
his cheek.
He didn’t had a chance to react
because she realized what she was doing quick enough, so she instantly let him
go and grabbed her steamy mug, sipping the hot coco a little too fast… at least
now she had an excuse for her boiling blood…
Seunghyun caught her wrist with
one hand, while the other hand took the mug and put it on the table next to them. He dragged her
closer and closer until their noses met. He looked like he wanted to get inside
her and maybe he even would’ve had if “Jingle bells” wouldn’t start jollying it
around. His upper jaw twitched visibly and his eyes rolled angrily.
“I’m really starting to hate this
melody…” he muttered and waited for her to answer her phone. “Oh…” he said when
she quickly showed it wasn’t hers the one ringing. “Yeoboseyo!” he said shyly
when she pointed him to answer.
“Where are you, man?!” he could
hear Ji’s voice screaming on the other side. Luckily they were talking in
Korean so he could smile widely and ask “The hell do you want now?”
“You said you’re going for a
little fresh air!” Ji answered laughing. “You took it all??”
“Mwo?” Seunghyun kept his smile
on.
“It’s been 2 hours!” Ji
enlightened his senior.
“Jinjja?” he answered throwing a
glance out on the small window and looked after the girl as she slowly gathered
the cups and took them back in the kitchen. He sighed deeply, the maigic of
this night was torn. He exchanged a couple of other words on the phone and by
the time he was done, she came back empty handed, smiling.
“It’s ok” she said handing him his
coat.
“I’m really sorry… jeongmal mianhaeyo…” he said putting his coat
on without knowing what else he could say. He simply took a deep bow and exited
the door, but he regained his smile when he heard her thin voice:
“See you tomorrow…”
No, wait! That’s not what she
meant to say!! She wanted to say “Good bye” but her lips got a will of their
own!
“Ne!” he answered back, taking a
second, faster bow.
She turned all red in a matter of
1 and a half second and quickly closed the door. She leaned on it and slowly glided down,
covering her cheeks with her hands and smiling with tears on her face.
Honestly now, what was she
supposed to do?! She was squeezing Ji’s white shirt in her arms and looked
around for him. “Why I wasn’t paying attention to him??” she fought with
herself rolling around the floor she met Ji and stained his shirt. When she
reached Seunghyun’s door, she quickly hid it inside her cart and slowly knocked
twice. Because she got no answer, she used her card to open the door. It was so
quiet inside… she silently stepped
inside the room, everything around seemed untouched. She took a deep breath and
after a forced gulp she opened wide the closet’s doors – it was empty. Tears
came pouring down from her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away when she heard
the entrance door opening.
“Ah, so good you’re here!” the
overly annoying squeaky voice of her manager almost brought the tars back, but
she fought them bravely. “Clean
everything and freshen up!” he said looking around.
“Gwajangnim…” she muttered.
“Ne?”
“Me… I … Today I had to bring
something to the person inside this room…” she said trying hard not to let show
the tremble in her voice.
“Ah, maybe he forgot!” the manager
said carelessly. “If it was something important he’ll ask for it, if not, you
may keep it” he spoke without facing her.
“Ne, gwajangnim…” she answered
lowering her eyes so he wouldn’t see her new tears.
The snow that began since
yesterday just became heavier with ever bigger snowflakes. She was following
them as they hit the basement small square window, absent mind caressing the
black gloves she received last night. She squatted on the floor holding a
nicely warped up gift with snowmen shiny paper. Her eyes were all red and
swollen, totally contrasting with her white – waxy face. She rested her
forehead on the gift and sighed loudly.
“Aissi… c’mon honey… you wouldn’t
be that lucky…” she smiled bitterly and took a deep breath. She hardly got up
and slowly slapped her cheeks to cheer herself up. She stuffed the gift inside
her big waistcloth pocket and even though she was aware of the way she was
looking like, she carried around all day, hoping that she might be able to meet
him. She even went against the rules and about every two hours she would climb
down to the reception hall and look for him.
It was already dark and she just
came back from one of her trips to the reception hall. She threw her eyes out
on the small window from the basement room. The snowflakes that looked so happy
all together until now, they became hectic and their suave air dance turned
into a senseless overcrowding that made her smile bitterly again.
“I wonder… is it snowing like this
back home too?” she whispered, not because she wanted to keep it quiet, but
because she had no more power to speak out loud. She took her phone out of her
pocket and dialed a number. As soon as she heard her mother’s voice, tears came
falling down faster and hotter than before.
“Oh, mom…” she said almost
whispering.
How could he simply ask where to
find her, he didn’t even knew her name… And.. why was he here in the first
place? He could clearly hear that there was a violent blizzard coming their way
and he was one hour and a half away from home.
He sighed silently and pulled the cap better over his eyes, entering the
hotel. He looked around the reception hall but he remembered the maids weren’t
allowed in there, so he slowly walked towards the elevators. ‘Why are you even
here if you must do it while hiding?’ his conscience started to charge him, but
he wouldn’t quit it just yet. The
‘personnel only’ elevator was just
around the corner and he was heading towards it when a girl with a pink
waistcloth went by. He quickly rolled around to pretend he’s changing his path,
but in fact he followed her all the way down on some stairs until they reached
a long grey hall with doors on a single part. The girl entered one of them and
he planned to follow her more but he passed by a slightly opened white door. He
thought he heard a familiar voice so he glided past it. He pushed it but he
didn’t anticipate that it would creak so loud. He froze in place not only
because of the loud noise but because of the girl’s pouring tears that drew on
her face long black mascara stripes. He listened to her while she said her
goodbyes in her language and only then he was able to step inside, smiling
shyly.
“Anyoung haseyo” he said taking a
short bow. “Are you ok?” he asked approaching her.
“Mhm…” she barely muttered. She
was staring at him with teary, big eyes not knowing what to believe. Did he
came for her or…?
“Mianhaeyo…” he started again when
he stopped almost next to her. “I should’ve told you last night… yesterday was
my final day here. After the last night party I had to leave…” he spoke a
little slower than usually because he had no idea why but his words wouldn’t
come out as easily as they used to… ‘maybe because I’m speaking in English?’ he
thought trying hard to conceive a speech but his mind stuck on her lack of
reaction. “Are you ok?...” he felt the need to ask the same question again,
paying much more attention on his spelling.
“May you please give me paper
tissue?” she said pointing towards a short table.
“S… Sure!...” he replied turning
around to look for the indicated place, quashing on his own amused smile.
“Kamsahamnida…!” she said grabbing
it in one quick move. She rolled around and suddenly she noisily blew her nose
and quickly wiped away the mascara under her eyes.
“Another one?” he asked without
being able to hide his amusement anylonger when she turned to face him and she
looked like a panda.
“No, thank you” she quickly
replied trying to clear better her under-eyes makeup. She suddenly realized she
was wearing the gloves he gave her.
Every drop of blood rushed towards the tips of her ears when she noticed
his eyes stuck on her hands too. “I… I told you I really like them…” she
babbled and slowly took them off.
He smiled looking down.
“Were you talking with your
mother?” he asked switching away from the subject.
“Nae…” she answered stealing
another smile from him. Realizing she just answered in Korean, she quickly
lowered her eyes too. “I’m… trying to fit in…”
“C’mon!” he said all of a sudden
and grabbed her shoulders. “I’ll take you home!” he said gently guiding her
towards the door.
“Oh, waith!” she stopped in place.
“Huh?”
“Um… i… also have something for
you… “ she mostly whispered, searching for the same spot she noticed on the
floor a little time ago.
“You do?” he chuckled like a kid
receiving candy.
“Well… it’s literally nothing big…
but… it’s just that…” she stumbled upon her words judging herself for the guts
she had to talk to him like this.
“It’s Christmas Eve” he helped her
up. “And I really enjoy gifts” he smiled stretching out his hands to grab the
package she took out of her giant front pocket.
‘Whaa… he’s so able…’ she smiled
at his handiness when he unwrapped the gift without ripping the paper.
“Yaah!!” he shouted startling her.
“Oh, mianhae…” he laughed out loud “I just love penguins!” he said rolling off
the long, black, knitted scarf with a small penguin attached at its very end.
She smiled congratulating herself
for the great idea she had to sew the small doll on the scarf after she knitted
it. Her eyes doubled when he gave the scarf back to her and he laughed at them
when they ran back on the floor.
“I said I really like it” his low
voice melted away her legs and his perfume almost stopped her breathing when
his ‘old’ scarf surrounded her neck.
She stared at him mesmerized as he
rolled the black scarf he just received around his own neck.
“Ah… so fluffy!” he smiled totally
pleased. “Gomawo! Thank you!” he laughed again at her eyes. “How do I look?”
“Divine…” she found herself
thinking out loud.
“Come with me! I have an idea!” he
suddenly said grabbing her hand.
They took a couple of steps, but
suddenly stopped in front of a hanger.
“Is this yours?” he asked pointing to a black coat.
“Mhm…” she answered preparing to
say something else too, but he covered her shoulders with it.
“Wait, where are we going?...”she
asked following him.
“it’s a surprise” he answered
dragging her away.
“But I’m not done here yet… and my
boss…”
“I’ll deal with him” he said
opening the big glass door of the hotel.
They both froze for a little while
they lost their eyes on the heavy snowing outside. “C’mon, let’s go!” he said
again dragging her towards a car.
“Whe…where are we going?” she
tried once more to find out when he fastened her seat-belt and just smiled,
starting the engine.
“Huh? Hyung?: Ji asked
himself seeing Seunghyun’s car passing
right by him. He was actually suspecting something but he wouldn’t want to
think about it too much… even though his hands caught a little shake inside the
pockets where he had hidden a couple of
small yogurt cans.
He freed his head from under the
grip of his big hood and entered the hotel smiling. He looked around a little.
“How do you find a person you
don’t even know his name?” he said laughing at his own and went straight
to the reception clerk. A pink waist-cloth made him forget his “Excuse
me sir…” and run after it.
“Excuse me, miss!” he changed his
direction and stopped the girl.
“Yes?” she turned around and they
both had somehow the same reaction: she covered her mouth with both of her
hands and him, recognizing her from the other day, his first urge was to turn
around and leave.
“Oh my God!” the maid shouted. “I
can’t believe it!!! You… you really came for her!...” she lowered her voice at
the last part.
“Ne…” he smiled shyly. “Is she
around?”
“The luck on some people…” she
enviously whispered. “I haven’t seen her in a while” she then said with a
rather loud voice. “But I can ask my boss about her…”
“I would appreciate it, thank you
very much…” he smiled squishing the
yogurts inside his pockets.
“Oh, Miss Ming Yoo!” the maid
suddenly said taking long bows to the girl slowly approaching them.
“good evening!” Ming Yoo answered
unimpressed. “Please call…” she wanted to say but the made cut her off.
“Miss Yoo, this is…” she said a
little overexcited. “This is…” she froze again without knowing what name to use
– his stage name or the real one? She
decided to use them both: “Miss Yoo,
this is GD, Kwon Jiyong, the singer…” she said in a glance “and she’s also
looking for the new girl.”
“Are you?” Ming Yoo looked at him
for a while allowing her nicely done eyebrows to betray her astonishment.
“Mnm…” he answered smiling without
realizing he started a soft back-and-forth balance.
“Park Goo!” the screechy voice of
the fat manager stopped them. “Where’s
round-eyes?!” he roared walking towards the maid who was discreetly trying to
sognal him to lower his voice. He understood her only when he faced the upset
look of Mong Yoo.
“Round eyes?” she asked for an
explanation as soon as he reached them.
“Oh…. Miss… I can assure you
there’s no offensatory meaning in here… it’s just… an innocent n…nickname
because we…” the maid’s eyes made him babble “I… I find it difficult to
pronounce her name…” he quickly said waving his hands up in the air. “It’s only
with love…”
“Well, looks like we’re all
looking for her…” Ming Yoo replied on a cold voice.
“Are we?” the manager widened his
eyes. “Why?” he asked but again, Ming Yoo’s glare froze him. “Umm… ok…. Umm…
I’ll find her… no problem…” he mostly mumbled dialing a number on his cell
phone.
“Jingle bells” filled the
awkwardly quiet car. the girl
startled visibly and quickly glanced at
Seunghyun who simply smiled without taking his eyes off of the road. Seeing
that the call wouldn’t stop anytime soon, she raked through her pocket and took
it out. She checked the caller’s ID and frowned.
“Who is it?” Seunghyun asked
without looking at her.
“My boss…” she answered ready to
swipe her finger over the green jumping icon. Before she could do that, he
suddenly grabbed her phone and shut it off.
“O..oh…” she barely managed
to whisper.
“I said I’ll talk to your boss,
but not just now” he felt the need to reassure her when she stuffed her face
deeper in the big scarf.
Again it turned silent in the car.
After about two hours or so, they
reached a huge iron gate.
“What’s this?” she asked as two men hurried to open it up.
Seunghyun just smiled and lowered
his head a little saluting them.
‘Oh, no, no, no! what’s he
doin`?!’ she thought without having the guts to actually spell the words. She
refused to get out when one of them opened the car’s door and invited her out.
“Jaebal…” Seunghyun stretched out
his helping hand. “Please” he translated for her thinking she’s not reacting
since she doesn’t know what he said.
‘ I’m not sure I can walk’ she
would’ve answer but she knew it wasn’t a good thing to say so she just summed
it all up in a faded smile.
“But what’s here?” she managed to
ask while grabbing his hand.
“My house” Seunghyun answered
proudly.
She froze just before her foot
landed the ground and she just stared at him.
“ C’mon” he smiled hiding his eyes
away “let’s get in, I’m freezing…” he pulled her hand.
“Why… why would you bring me
here?” she asked aimlessly following
him.
“You looked like you needed a
family” he answered painfully sincere “so I thought why not mine?”
“Yeah but…” she would’ve protest
but he was still dragging her and in no time they reached the four small stairs
they had to climb to get in front of the big, double door that Seunghyun opened
in one quick move.
She was holding tight on him, just
like a kid in his first kindergarten day; her heart was about to burst out of
her chest and maybe just for now she really had to stay focused on this new
thing called ‘walking’ which seemed to be needing all of her strength and
attention.
“What?!...” she startled when he
asked for her coat with only one gesture. “Oh… yeah…. Yeah…” she whispered
handing over the long, black coat.
She felt like she will just melt
away in those fluffy pink, artificial fur slippers she just received. She
wasn’t quite sure but it looked like the floors were made of some sort of a
jelly since every step she took made her feel like she was sinking inside the
soft carpets. It really became difficult for her to follow him, especially now
that he left her on her own… And this sweet scent.. this surely wasn’t a place
on earth!
Seunghyun’s voice startled her:
“Eomma , na wa sseo!”
‘Eomma? This means ‘mom’ doesn’t
it? “ she barely got the chance to think before a thin voice cut her off. Most
probably it said ‘I’m here’ because he grabbed her wrist again and made her walk. They entered a big, bright
room and she had no idea at what to stare first – the really huge Christmas
tree or at the three really beautiful women who were just as surprised as she
was.
“Umm… Annyeong hashimnikka!” she
tried to pronounce as accurate as she could, bowing 90°.
“Good evening” one of the women
answered in English. She hung the sparkling honeycomb and took a little bow
too.
“I had no idea you could speak
Korean” Seunghyun whispered as he
lowered his upper body in a polite salute.
“Neither had I” she quickly
answered turning Seunghyun’s smile into
a laughter.
The woman who spoke the first
stretched out her arms and he hugged her really tight. He did the same with the
other two, and the last of them ruffled his hear winking at him.
“Eomma, imu, Hye-yoon”, he began
talking in Korean, “I would like you to meet…” he stopped all of a sudden. He
just realized he had no idea what was the name of the girl he carried up to
here.
Ugh She lost herself in his eyes
when he pierced her sight, but luckily she understood soon enough what he was
asking for. She took another deep bow:
“Oh…umm… Annyeong hashimnikka! Ah
Rin Nah imnida…”
“Yeah, she is … AR Rin Nah…?” he
mostly asked rather than said it. “Please don’t treat her as an outsider and
take good care of her” he smiled peeping at the youngest of the girls to whom
he reffered as ‘Hye-yoon’.
“We couldn’t even if we’d wanted
to” the oldest one said smiling. She turned towards the girl and spoke in a
perfect English: “Welcome, darling! Please feel like at home. I’m Seunghyun’s
mother, this is his aunt an she is his sister, Hye-yoon”… the woman said but
the girl recognized them quite fast and right now she was in awe, not being
able to believe that she was actually greeted by Choi Seunghyun’s mother
herself.
“Annyeong hashimnikka!” were the
only words that kept coming out of her mouth.
His mother then said something to
him in their language and she turned around to give some explanations to
Hye-yoon.
“Ah Rin Nah?” he whispered to her
ear when no one was looking anymore.
“I had no idea how to translate
Alina in Korean” she answered so sincere he burst into a fost laughter.
Hye-yoon came back carrying a tray
with 5 steamy mugs. She served everyone around smiling brightly when she faced
Alina. She smiled back tasting the brown liquid. Her eyes widened but she
wouldn’t dare to say a word.
“My mum made it” Seunghyun smiled
and whispered, making her to hide her content face back inside the big mug.
“Ooh… what a storm…” Hye-yoon
suddenly said looking outside the huge glass wall.
“It’s OK, sis” Seunghyun replied
“it’s a little snowy but he’ll make it”.
“Ya! You wenchy face! Of course
he’ll make it! This is no storm to stop
him!” she smiled a little worried while she gently pet her belly looking at the
big, hectic snowflakes.
“I know, but if the planes won’t
fly…” he said again with a challenging
smile that cost him a knock on his head.
“Stop it, both of you” their
mother stopped them smiling softly. She turned to face Alina: “Do you speak any
Korean?” she asked at first in Korean, and after a merely 3 seconds asked again
in English.
“Oh… no, not really” Alina
blushed. “Only the basics hello, thank you, excuses me…”.
“In this case…” the woman said
making everyone stare at her, “we won’t be using any other language than English,
even when talking to each other, alright?”
“Yes, mom!” Seunghyun and his
sister answered almost shouting like they just received an order from their
superior.
“Kamsahmnida!...” Alina whispered.
“…Rin-nah-ah…” she found it pretty
difficult to say Alina’s name since she
didn’t even provided her first name too, “…would you like to help us?” asked
pointing towards the board box filled with Christmas glass bells and ornaments.
“Of course!” Alina answered
jumping up.
Seunghyun lounged himself on the
big cozy sofa, watching ‘his women’ as they hung everything on the really
beautiful looking Christmas tree. He
wasn’t even realizing he was smiling quite pleased. his cocoa was replaced with
a glass of red wine, but right now it was long forgotten in between his
fingers.
A sudden bright light hit his
eyes. He blinked several times in awe
until the figure of his sister appeared clearly before his eyes.
Hye-yoon started laughing and he
pouted.
“What the…”
“Just look at your face!” she
mocked him showing the picture she took.
“Why you…” he said stretching over
to grab the photo, but before he could, Alina approached them and leant over Hye’s shoulder to take a
peek at it.
“Oh my God, you look stunning…” Alina
found herself talking out loud, making both of them smile.
“May I see it?” Seunghyun got up
too.
“Sure!” Hye gave him the photo.
“It says instagram on it all
over!” he smiled proudly.
“May I…” Hye asked gaining back
her cell phone. “Smile please!” she said pointing it towards the both of Alina
and Seunghyun.
“Oh, sure!” he grabbed Alina’s
shoulder and even though she refused at first, now she was smiling shyly on
Hye’s long phone screen.
The doorbell made everyone stop
and stare at the door while a maid went to answer it.
“It was about time” Seunghyun’s
mother said mostly for her, then she made Hye-yoon follow her to the door,
greeting the guests.
Soon enough the house filled up
with totally unfamiliar faces, and even the familiar ones couldn’t be found
since Seunghyun went to the kitchen to refill his long glass, Hye-yoon cuddled
with, most probably, her husband, Seunghyun’s mother was entertaining someone
her age.. just Alina was left alone, in the middle of the huge living room,
next to the Christmas tree.
Seunghyun carefully chose a a
nicely labeled wine bottle and poured it in two crystal-clear glasses. He was
about to take them to the next room when a buzz inside his pants made him
stop. He put the glasses back on the
table and searched his pants. He quickly glanced towards the door to look after
Alina – she was still standing next to the Christmas tree, looking even shyer
than before. He smiled and pressed the jumping envelope icon on the small white
cellphone. His eyes widened. He was
holding her phone and she just received a reply message to one of her posts on
a Bigbang forum. He squeezed the phone
in his hands ready to throw it away but quickly changed his mind and accessed
the email.
‘I bet they’re cool in real life’
was the answer to her previous post which he found to be ‘I wish I could meet
them in person…” with three little hearts next to it. He looked for the media folder next. He
nearly dropped the phone when his own
pictures hit his eyes. He took a deep sip from the glass, in fact he drank the
whole glass at once. Right now he felt betrayed because anyone who was his fan
knew he said he’d never date a fan… so she must’ve had pretended to not know
him to lure him over? Or she found out recently who he was and looked for
information about him and his band? He quickly checked on her forum account:
6th of May 2013… three years ago. He
browsed through her pictures – his and GD’s were the most. Even more, some of
Gd’s pictures also had hearts and kisses around him. He drank the second glass
too.
He tried to find any other
explanation to those he already found but he failed. He scratched the back of
his head to give his brain some time to think and looked for her ringtone menu.
He grinned as all of his or his band’s hits appeared one after another… among
them just a single “Jingle bells” was now set as the main ringtone. Could it be
that she changed it because of the Holidays? No! He was certain she tried to
trick him. Tears started gathering in his eyes when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” he yelled louder
than he should.
He quickly hid the phone back in
his pocket and shuffled towards the door. The image of Jiyong from Alina’s
phone interfered with the image of the smiling Ji in front of the door.
Suddenly his blood rushed to his cheeks and one could almost feel the fire in
his eyes. Ji opened up his mouth to say the rightful Christmas cheer, but he
couldn’t.
“What the Hell are you doing
here?” Seunghyun cut him off.
They entered a big, bright room
and she had no idea at what to stare first – the really huge Christmas tree or
at the three really beautiful women who were just as surprised as she was.
“Umm… Annyeong hashimnikka!” she
tried to pronounce as accurate as she could, bowing 90°.
“Good evening” one of the women
answered in English. She hung the sparkling honeycomb and took a little bow
too.
“I had no idea you could speak
Korean” Seunghyun whispered as he
lowered his upper body in a polite salute.
“Neither had I” she quickly
answered turning Seunghyun’s smile into
a laughter.
The woman who spoke the first
stretched out her arms and he hugged her really tight. He did the same with the
other two, and the last of them ruffled his hear winking at him.
“Eomma, imu, Hye-yoon”, he began
talking in Korean, “I would like you to meet…” he stopped all of a sudden. He
just realized he had no idea what was the name of the girl he carried up to
here.
Ugh She lost herself in his eyes
when he pierced her sight, but luckily she understood soon enough what he was
asking for. She took another deep bow:
“Oh…umm… Annyeong hashimnikka! Ah
Rin Nah imnida…”
“Yeah, she is … AR Rin Nah…?” he
mostly asked rather than said it. “Please don’t treat her as an outsider and
take good care of her” he smiled peeping at the youngest of the girls to whom
he reffered as ‘Hye-yoon’.
“We couldn’t even if we’d wanted
to” the oldest one said smiling. She turned towards the girl and spoke in a
perfect English: “Welcome, darling! Please feel like at home. I’m Seunghyun’s
mother, this is his aunt an she is his sister, Hye-yoon”… the woman said but
the girl recognized them quite fast and right now she was in awe, not being
able to believe that she was actually greeted by Choi Seunghyun’s mother
herself.
“Annyeong hashimnikka!” were the
only words that kept coming out of her mouth.
His mother then said something to
him in their language and she turned around to give some explanations to
Hye-yoon.
“Ah Rin Nah?” he whispered to her
ear when no one was looking anymore.
“I had no idea how to translate
Alina in Korean” she answered so sincere he burst into a fost laughter.
Hye-yoon came back carrying a tray
with 5 steamy mugs. She served everyone around smiling brightly when she faced
Alina. She smiled back tasting the brown liquid. Her eyes widened but she
wouldn’t dare to say a word.
“My mum made it” Seunghyun smiled
and whispered, making her to hide her content face back inside the big mug.
“Ooh… what a storm…” Hye-yoon
suddenly said looking outside the huge glass wall.
“It’s OK, sis” Seunghyun replied
“it’s a little snowy but he’ll make it”.
“Ya! You wenchy face! Of course
he’ll make it! This is no storm to stop
him!” she smiled a little worried while she gently pet her belly looking at the
big, hectic snowflakes.
“I know, but if the planes won’t
fly…” he said again with a challenging
smile that cost him a knock on his head.
“Stop it, both of you” their
mother stopped them smiling softly. She turned to face Alina: “Do you speak any
Korean?” she asked at first in Korean, and after a merely 3 seconds asked again
in English.
“Oh… no, not really” Alina
blushed. “Only the basics hello, thank you, excuses me…”.
“In this case…” the woman said
making everyone stare at her, “we won’t be using any other language than
English, even when talking to each other, alright?”
“Yes, mom!” Seunghyun and his
sister answered almost shouting like they just received an order from their
superior.
“Kamsahmnida!...” Alina whispered.
“…Rin-nah-ah…” she found it pretty
difficult to say Alina’s name since she
didn’t even provided her first name too, “…would you like to help us?” asked
pointing towards the board box filled with Christmas glass bells and ornaments.
“Of course!” Alina answered
jumping up.
Seunghyun lounged himself on the
big cozy sofa, watching ‘his women’ as they hung everything on the really
beautiful looking Christmas tree. He
wasn’t even realizing he was smiling quite pleased. his cocoa was replaced with
a glass of red wine, but right now it was long forgotten in between his fingers.
A sudden bright light hit his eyes.
He blinked several times in awe until
the figure of his sister appeared clearly before his eyes.
Hye-yoon started laughing and he
pouted.
“What the…”
“Just look at your face!” she
mocked him showing the picture she took.
“Why you…” he said stretching over
to grab the photo, but before he could, Alina approached them and leant over Hye’s shoulder to take a
peek at it.
“Oh my God, you look stunning…”
Alina found herself talking out loud, making both of them smile.
“May I see it?” Seunghyun got up too.
“Sure!” Hye gave him the photo.
“It says instagram on it all
over!” he smiled proudly.
“May I…” Hye asked gaining back
her cell phone. “Smile please!” she said pointing it towards the both of Alina
and Seunghyun.
“Oh, sure!” he grabbed Alina’s
shoulder and even though she refused at first, now she was smiling shyly on
Hye’s long phone screen.
The doorbell made everyone stop
and stare at the door while a maid went to answer it.
“It was about time” Seunghyun’s
mother said mostly for her, then she made Hye-yoon follow her to the door,
greeting the guests.
Soon enough the house filled up
with totally unfamiliar faces, and even the familiar ones couldn’t be found
since Seunghyun went to the kitchen to refill his long glass, Hye-yoon cuddled
with, most probably, her husband, Seunghyun’s mother was entertaining someone
her age.. just Alina was left alone, in the middle of the huge living room,
next to the Christmas tree.
Seunghyun carefully chose a a
nicely labeled wine bottle and poured it in two crystal-clear glasses. He was
about to take them to the next room when a buzz inside his pants made him
stop. He put the glasses back on the
table and searched his pants. He quickly glanced towards the door to look after
Alina – she was still standing next to the Christmas tree, looking even shyer
than before. He smiled and pressed the jumping envelope icon on the small white
cellphone. His eyes widened. He was
holding her phone and she just received a reply message to one of her posts on
a Bigbang forum. He squeezed the phone
in his hands ready to throw it away but quickly changed his mind and accessed
the email.
‘I bet they’re cool in real life’
was the answer to her previous post which he found to be ‘I wish I could meet them
in person…” with three little hearts next to it. He looked for the media folder next. He
nearly dropped the phone when his own
pictures hit his eyes. He took a deep sip from the glass, in fact he drank the
whole glass at once. Right now he felt betrayed because anyone who was his fan
knew he said he’d never date a fan… so she must’ve had pretended to not know
him to lure him over? Or she found out recently who he was and looked for
information about him and his band? He quickly checked on her forum account:
6th of May 2013… three years ago. He
browsed through her pictures – his and GD’s were the most. Even more, some of
Gd’s pictures also had hearts and kisses around him. He drank the second glass
too.
He tried to find any other
explanation to those he already found but he failed. He scratched the back of
his head to give his brain some time to think and looked for her ringtone menu.
He grinned as all of his or his band’s hits appeared one after another… among
them just a single “Jingle bells” was now set as the main ringtone. Could it be
that she changed it because of the Holidays? No! He was certain she tried to
trick him. Tears started gathering in his eyes when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” he yelled louder
than he should.
He quickly hid the phone back in
his pocket and shuffled towards the door. The image of Jiyong from Alina’s
phone interfered with the image of the smiling Ji in front of the door.
Suddenly his blood rushed to his cheeks and one could almost feel the fire in
his eyes. Ji opened up his mouth to say the rightful Christmas cheer, but he
couldn’t.
“What the Hell are you doing
here?” Seunghyun cut him off.
The image of Jiyong from Alina’s
phone interfered with the image of the smiling Ji in front of the door.
Suddenly his blood rushed to his cheeks and one could almost feel the fire in
his eyes. Ji opened up his mouth to say the rightful Christmas cheer, but he
couldn’t.
“What the Hell are you doing
here?” Seunghyun cut him off.
“Umm… what?” Ji tried to look for a friendly
look since he couldn’t find any in his friend.
“Nothing…” Seunghyun tried to
smile as if really nothing happened, but all he could do was an unpleased grin.
“Please come in! Merry Christmas…” he barely muttered.
“Hyung… is anything wrong?” Ji
whispered looking for his friend’s eyes, which seemed a little more dazed than
usual.
“No, not at all… here, let me help
you…” Seunghyun took the boxes in his hands so Ji could take off his coat and
hang it on the wooden hanger.
“Ah, Jiyong-gi!” his mother
stretched out her hands to hug him when they both came inside the big room. “I
am so glad you could come!”
“Yeah… me too…” Ji said looking
after Seunghyun as he placed the boxes around the tree.
Seunghyun really wanted to ignore
Alina pretending he didn’t saw her right in the exact same place where he left
her, next to the big Christmas tree, but he really couldn’t – her big, bright
eyes almost froze him in place.
“Is everything alright?” she asked
so slowly that he wouldn’t even hear her if she wouldn’t shyly grab his sleeve.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” he answered
as cold as he could trying to keep his eyes away from her.
She lowered her head and let go of
him.
He turned to look after her
thinking that she must’ve turned around and left, but she was still there and
her teary eyes forced a warm smile on his face when his conscience hit him
hard. All he wanted right now was to ask for an explanation, to fight with her,
but her lost glance threw his already too confused and twisted thoughts into an
even bigger chaos.
“You?...” Ji’s voice made his body
to react again to the environment. “What
is she doing here?” he whispered knowing she couldn’t understand him.
“Why?” Seunghyun snapped at him
but right before his answer, a group of elderly men and women led by his mother
approached them and practically cornered
him.
Jiyong grabbed Alina’s wrist and
made her follow him, something that didn’t escaped Seunghyun’s fast eyes.
“Come!” Jiyong said dragging her
around until they reached the kitchen. “What are you doing here?” he asked as
soon as they entered.
“I really don’t know..” Alina
answered with whiny voice. “I just want to go home… “ she mostly whispered.
“Oh, that would be impossible now,
on this weather… “ Ji started smiling.
“Ani… I just wanna go home. My
home…” tears started falling and soft hiccups silenced Ji for a couple of
seconds. He couldn’t take it anymore and slowly grabbed her chin in between his
fingers and made her look at him.
Seunghyun was about to enter the
kitchen when he saw them, so he quickly turned left to hide behind the door. He peeped inside just to see
how Ji’s lips gently lowered over hers. He clenched his fists and shut tight his
eyes.
‘So she was just using me to get
to him??!’ he wanted to think but her voice wouldn’t let him finish:
“I told you to never do that
again!!” Alina yelled pushing Jiyong aside. “Don’t, never…” she said again when
he tried to calm her down. She quickly turned around to face the door but she
froze after just three steps: Seunghyun stared at her with a very unpleased
look.
“Oh, hyung…” Ji wanted to say
something but suddenly he couldn’t find any reason for what he should be
apologizing.
“Do you know who I am?” were the
only words that left Seunghyun’s uptight lips, shocking everyone, including
him. This wasn’t what he prepared to say. He opened up his mouth to speak again
but he just couldn’t, images of Ji’s pictures in her phone and the kiss he just
witnessed froze his mind.
“Hyung…?”
“What?” Alina merely whispered,
not because she didn’t heard him but because she simply lost her voice. Like a
thunder strike just hit her, in the back of her head she visualized the moment
in the car when he took away her phone. She instantly regretted for feeling so
lazy last night and didn’t finish deleting the pictures and the songs… Two hot
tears burnt her face when he indeed took out her phone from his pocket.
“Tell me! Did you?...” he asked
again a little more wired.
“Hyung…” Ji tried again to speak.
“Stay out of it, Kwon Jiyong! It’s
none of your business!” he froze Ji and kept on browsing the phone.
Alina just stared at him, tears
pouring down her face, but she still found his trembling fingers extremely hot
as they wiped the screen uncontrollable. Oh, God, she just couldn’t lose
everything right now! Yes! Of course she knew who they were! She was their
biggest fan.. well actually to be completely honest he only pirated their
albums and everything else because she never had money to buy one, but still
she was their biggest fan and she really did know Seunghyun’s opinion regarding
a date with his fan… This was the main reason why she hid the truth from him
and why she really shouldn’t have been so damn lazy last night and delete
everything!
“Actually!...” Seunghyun’s voice
brought her back “It’s ALL of your business!...” he said stretching out the
phone to Ji’s face.
“What’s that?” Ji pretended to not
understand the picture of himself covered in hearts.
“It’s her phone!” Seunghyun
answered in disbelief.
“So?...” Ji kept his poker face.
Seunghyun ceased to look for
understanding in his friend and turned to face her again.
“Back then… at the hotel… when you
entered my room… Did you knew who I was?...”
“No!” Alina’s fast answer
surprised them both.
“But then why…” Seunghyun started
to back away.
“Park… Park Goo!...” she suddenly
yelled happy that this thought came through, and really fast went back to her
teary eyes and whispering voice: “…she told me to look for this band, Bigbang…”
“What’s Park Goo?” Seunghyun
asked.
“Not what, but who” Jiyong said.
“She’s a maid at the hotel…” he started explaining but the still burning fire
in Seunghyun’s eyes shut him up.
“How would you know that?” he
asked in a rough tone.
“Mianhae…” Ji raised his hands up
like he surrendered.
Because she knew she couldn’t let
him organize his thoughts, Alina quickly began talking again, being extra
careful to maintain her crying voice:
“…She and this other girl downloaded
everything in my phone… and they tried to make me memorize everyone… but I
couldn’t…” she discreetly checked on Seunghyun’s face and tears began forming
again when he caught her eyes: “Have I done something that bad? I mean I know
that you’re a celebrity, that’s why I never wanted to… ”
“But then…” he interrupted her
“why do you have an account on the official forum since three years ago?”
“Eh?...” she almost forgot that
she was supposed to be sad, but luckily Ji’s giggles reminded her just in time,
before Seunghyun finished accessing the forum and point the screen in her face.
“You thought that was me?” she
really congratulated herself for not using her real face as the profile
picture, “…That’s Park…” she got to say before he turned the phone off.
“I… I thought… I’m sorry”
Seunghyun said handing over the phone and simply left without any other word.
Alina and Jiyong exchanged a quick
look. Before she could make any movement whatsoever, Ji’s soft laughter blocked
her.
“Don’t stress too much, you’ll
understand his ways over time” he smiled and pat her shoulder. “Fighting!” he
encouraged her giving his fist up in the air and winking at her.
“Huh?” was it possible that he
‘read’ her?
“Umm…” he said right before he
exited the kitchen “…mianhae, I really had no idea he was your bias… usually
girls fancy more about me” he laughed.
“What?...”
“Now don’t let his ass freeze for
too long” he said looking over the big window behind her.
She turned to look over there too
and followed for a short while a dark silhouette crossing by.
“What do you…” she started turning
back to face Jiyong, but he wasn’t there anymore. She rolled around but still
he wasn’t nowhere in the kitchen. She took a step forward to take a look inside
the living room. She did found him in there, talking and laughing with
Seunghyun’s sister and her boyfriend. She shook her head almost smiling, then
she remembered about Seunghyun. She quickly turned around to look for him from
the window but before reaching it, her eyes hit something on the table: two
small yogurt cans, the ones she used to eat, were carefully placed there. She
took them both and exited the kitchen in a haste, but Jiyong’s eyes stopped
her. He winked at her and signaled to get outside. She nodded and smiled. In
less than a second she grabbed her coat and exited the glass door. She followed
the barely seeable footsteps on the snow and reached a wooden gazebo.
Seunghyun was sitting there all
alone with his head and face covered by a big, furry hood and nothing more but
a glass of wine in his hands. He looked like a monk saying a prayer to his god
(Bachus in this case) with his hands bound on the glass and his head down.
“Are you angry with me?” Alina’s
soft voice surprised him.
He took off his hood but didn’t
look at her.
“Ani… I’m more angry at me…” he
said after a rather long pause.
“Why are you sitting here all
alone? Aren’t you cold?”
“I’m not. I like coming here to
clear up my mind…”
“May I take a place in there?” she
interrupted him.
“In my mind?” he turned to face
her.
“On the bench” she smiled and
waited for him to move a little to a side. She sat next to him and pushed away
the glass in his hands. He looked at her with wide eyes and an unknown smile on
his face while she replaced de wine with one can of yogurt. He looked at it for
a while and her eyes from the first day they met appeared in front of him.
Alina couldn’t understand why he
stared at her like that, but she was determined to resist his glare. He smiled
lowering first his eyes.
“You’re the first one…” he mumbled
smiling.
“First on what?” she felt really
proud of herself but kept her true feeling behind a soft smile.
“Saranghaeyo…” he cut her off.
“Huh?...” was the only sound she
could render, thinking her own mind was playing tricks on her.
“You have no idea of what I said,
do you?” he smiled a little relieved but somehow disappointed.
“That’s the first word I learned
in Korean…” her cheeks started boiling already not knowing what to do anymore.
His hand on her face froze her
more than the blizzard managed to do it in all of her 20 years on this earth.
His lips over hers melted her faster than an ice cube on a flame and lucky it
was below 0° outside otherwise she couldn’t ever explain the unnatural red
color of her face.
‘Never doubt the love of a fan… he
loved you since the beginning without even knowing you and no matter what he’ll
always be there for you’ ...maybe she’ll tell him this someday, but not this
day. Today nothing else mattered, not the howling blizzard nor the colored,
dancing lights that set off the house’s impressive outline joyfully singing
“Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all around”…
the end
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu