Almost Lover

Chapter 5 - Surprises

Wonhee rolled her eyes to the side, pursing her lips. "I still don't get why you have to be gay to be his friend. But, whatever..." she said as she flooded her three-stack pancakes with maple syrup again. I had not told Wonhee about the growing feelings I had for Jaewoong nor the fact that I crashed into his car. Luckily, the scooter was at the shop at the moment, so I didn't have to worry about how to cover that up.

"You know, I think he's hot," Wonhee continued. "Almost as hot as your chicken-livered, no-principle ex-boyfriend..."

"Wonhee-ah, don't talk about Akira like that. You know he had his reasons." Reasons that took me a long while to accept, reasons that I only now began to understand. I let a few seconds pass before I continued. "So, you think Akira is hotter than Jaewoong?" I asked even though I begged to differ.

"Oh, I don't know. Akira has bigger eyes, but maybe Bruised Lee is hotter. He's taller than Akira, no?"

"Yeah, a couple of inches, I think," I said. Without heels, the top of my head leveled up to Akira's nose while it only reached up to Jaewoong's chin.

"And his muscles are more tone..." Wonhee added and then pushed something on her cell phone right next to her plate; a different picture replaced her phone wallpaper. "Damn, he's hot... If only his face wasn't messed up..." she said, staring at the picture.

"What are you looking at?" I asked, craning my neck to see the picture, curious.

Wonhee held the phone up and showed me the photo on her cell phone. It was Jaewoong's almost naked body from last night.

"You took a picture of him? You freakin' took a picture of him?" I asked in disbelief.

"Sshhh!" Wonhee shushed, placing her index finger against her lips. "He's staying at my house for free. I think I have the right to take whatever as his payment, and this picture is it."

"Oh my God, you are such a pervert," I said, shaking my head with feigned disgust.

"What? You didn't feel anything at all when you were undressing him? Don't tell me you've really become gay..."

Of course I felt something! She had no idea how I felt. I myself did not know where to begin to describe how I felt. Who couldn't feel anything when you're undressing a hot guy down to his underwear? But I did my best not to think about how attractive he was or take a second look at his ripped abs otherwise I would have been too jelly-kneed to finish cleaning his dirty body. Besides, my mind was still preoccupied with the mysteries and the dreadful turn of events that happened prior. But I couldn't deny nor hide the truth – I did feel something.

Before I could start spilling the attraction I felt last night, we heard a door close upstairs and footfalls started descending down the stairs.

Wonhee and I exchanged wide-eyed looks. "He's awake!" we said in unison. Quickly, Wonhee and I changed our topics from Jaewoong's hotness to recent news of Korean idols.

"So, I heard Kim Hyunjoong dated a celebrity before," Wonhee started. "Isn't that crazy? How on earth was he able to hide it from his fans?"

Wait. What? Kim Hyunjoong dated a celebrity before?

"Oh, hi there, Bruised Lee!" Wonhee greeted as Jaewoong walked into the kitchen, before I could react to the Kim Hyunjoong news.

I glared at Wonhee, I told you not to call him names! I muttered with frustration under my breath.

Jaewoong, still clothed in my white tee and my drawstring light-blue Care Bear pajamas, looked at us with a befuddled expression, touching the nape of his neck, as if to ask who was Bruised Lee.