Audition [Daragon]

Target 30: Special Chapter [Jiyong]

Dedicated to: dnginfinity! :)) Hello latest reader, thank you for the wonderful comment. :))

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Jiyong's P.O.V

It was late September when it all started. The rain pours nonstop from the sky, appearing from tiny dew drops to large amounts. I remember, I was ten back then, and I was still living at an old shack at the land of Busan, where wheat and rice grow. Because the rain was pouring down hard, I did my usual routine of placing a pale at our front porch to serve as a rain gauge. I used it to determine when the rain will stop, or if it'll be a heavy downpour and then, I will tell my observation to the farmers.

That day, I decided to not bring an umbrella while waiting for my rain gauge to catch raindrops. Time back then was very golden, yet longer than now. 45 minutes for me back then was like 10 hours now.

I placed my pale near our front porch, where its mouth opens up to the open sky while I settled down beside it, on the wet bed of grass and mud. I didn't worry to get filthy. Filthy is what you get when you farm. Filthy is our life here. Filthy is money.

My mother was away, a year, and it gave us a great loss. No one tended the house and the food. No one counted the sales of our rice and wheat. No one but me and my sister while we balance our studies. It wasn't good for us either, because we almost failed to our studies.

The 45 minutes was up, because the clock inside the house started to ring, and I measured what my makeshift rain gauge caught. Based on my observation, the rain will stop at sunset and if not maybe by the evening. As I collect the pale, and was about to throw the water to the fields across the road, I heard the sound of a car's horn resonating through the whole fields. I looked up excitedly, and saw my mother standing beside her Hearse in a red checkered button-down, a jumpsuit and a straw hat. She's already in gear for farming. But what surprised me is the continuous honking of the car without her at the wheel.

I watched as she peer her head inside, talking to someone by the steering wheel, and after a few seconds, I saw a man about the same age as me, glaring as if I was born his archenemy.

And I am.

Anyway, they both went to me and my mother smiled as if the appearance of this man in front of me made me somewhat happy from her one year absence. I scowled, probably, because my mother momentarily frowned.

She fixed her face, "Jiyong, dear, this is your brother."

"Hi, brother." I greeted, my voice monotonous, still scowling.

"Now, be friends with your brother." My mother said, softly. "Kwon Jiyong, I want you to meet your brother," She smiled widely, as equal as my frown. "Kim Jaejoong."

We just stared at each other.

"Now, I want you to know that the reason why you have the same suffix at the end of your names is because you're both special to me and you're like twins." My mother said.

I turned around. "I'll just go to my room."

And I did. Without the makeshift rain gauge.

Days with Jaejoong were like hell. I learned from my mother and father's fights that he was my mother's son when she got pregnant the day she attended their high school reunion about eleven years ago. Her former suitor made her drink something that made her mind somehow swimming and fuzzy, and she vaguely remembered everything that had happened to them. After giving birth to Jaejoong, she left him with his father and went back here to Busan. Then, she got pregnant again, and gave birth to me. Apparently so, Jaejoong's father died and that's why my mother had to go back to Seoul to get him so he could live with us. For a record, Jaejoong is a year older than me.

I went to the kitchen to have dinner with my older sister as my parents have again another fight upstairs. She's sitting on a stool facing the counter, playing with her food as she always do when she's bored waiting for me. I sat next to her, and said, "They're fighting again."

She sighed, rolling her eyes. "You don't say."

"It's getting annoying lately that I just have this slight urge to go in between and tell them to shut up and just accept whatever it is now." I told her as I grabbed myself a plate of the chicken pasta my grandfather surely had made for us before he had gone to sleep.

"It's not that easy, Ji." She started, fixing herself up to start eating. "If you became a husband, and you knew your wife got unwillingly pregnant by another man, that would definitely set your loins on fire and have this strong urge to kill that man."

"So, you're telling me I'm a child created unwillingly." I heard a voice from in front of us and I looked up. It was Jaejoong.

My sister quickly stood up, shaking her head. "Jaejoong, I never meant that. I was thinking...that you were created...because of strong love of your father to our mother." My sister bit her lip. I knew she's lying, because she bites her lip when she does. Her thoughts were somehow not inclined to what she said. We were thinking of the same thing, Jaejoong is a son from the outside.

Jaejoong shook his head, his face still expressionless with his eyes stormy and sad, completely uneven to his face. "You're lying, Noona. You think of me as a curse to this family because I was born with a different father than you do have. And you," He turned to me, and definitely, Jaejoong was near to tears. "You didn't like your name anymore, a name with a perfect meaning, because we have the same suffix, -ong."

"That's not true!" My sister was the first one to defend ourselves, and she was crying with her hands clenched into two tight balls of fists.

"Then tell me what's true! I lived my life without knowing who my mother is. Honestly, when she showed up and told me I have a family, I was happy. Never did I become much happier in my life. But when I arrived here, no one. Ever. Welcomed. Me." Jaejoong said; his words were like knives against a cupboard, slicing deeply until it leaves a deep mark that cannot be undone.

"Don't tell us to move on with this kind of living because it's hard to us too!" My sister shouted back, breathlessly. "You can't just quickly accept a sibling from a different father that fast. We need to get used to this, okay?"

Jaejoong held back his tears, and placed his plate of chicken pasta on the counter. He remained fixed on his spot, as he clench and unclench his fists. With my sister's prodding, we went to him and hugged him. We welcomed him to the family.

And my parents' fights subsided.

Jaejoong and I attended the same class together, and never did we do something individually except for private stuff like dating and bathing. Problems come and go every after a while, but we fix them quickly without punching and killing each other. We learned that the hard way, but it was worth it. Our parents understood the true meaning of life through us. They didn't fight anymore.

But the real problem came when we both became honor rolls at school.  With me as the first, and him at third. It was always a tie since first year, but at the graduation, I got the highest remarks and got the first rank. Jaejoong lost at some other student and got third.

Our fighting began. He didn't want to talk to me anymore, and he keeps a distance when we play Xbox together with my sister. Jaejoong clearly avoided me the whole summer after graduation.

After the graduation, we moved to Seoul because my grandfather stated in his wills that after he died, we will live to modernity at Seoul. We didn't let him down, so we moved. That day, Jaejoong and I are still fine at each other and were just having a 'cool off' status, still talking but it was moderate. After we settled in our house, I went out for fresh air, and saw that there was this cute girl across ours. She's looking at our furniture as they move it inside, clutching to something I recognize as a laptop and I instantly know it was love at first sight.

I remember that I crossed the street to talk to her. She has the most beautiful smile, as if a world class sculptor sculpted her face. It was perfectly angular with pearls for eyes, sparkling a thousand times as my mother's jewelry. Her skin was milky white that looked so soft. I automatically outstretched my hand.

"Hey, I'm Ji." I introduced myself, and she accepted my hand. It feels so great, soft and small against mine. Her lips stretched into a smile.

She was my first love. She was also Jaejoong's first love. We're fourteen.

But as days passed by, the girl finally admitted she's going back to the countryside because of her parents' decision.

"Sorry, Ji and Jae. I need to go back to Busan tomorrow because my parents decided it would be best if we take care of my grandparents."  
She said as she fumbles with the ribbon on her hair.

"Nah, it's okay Sandy. We're going to be fine here." I said, acting all mighty like Superman.

"Visit our lot there for us, okay?" Jeajoong gave his best smile, which caused her to blush in deep bright crimson.

She pouted. "I don't want to leave without you guys knowing that...I...I have been..."

"Know what?" Jaejoong was the first one to press, grinning as if he knows she'll be confessing to him.

Sandy sighed, gathering courage and wrapped her arms around Jaejoong.  
I felt my heart ached.

"Jaejoong, you're my best friend and I wish you all the best." She squeezed him tightly, and Jaejoong became as curious as I was.

Then, she walked towards me, hugged me, and quickly pulled away to kiss me on the cheek lightly. My body betrayed and my face went hot, blushing as red as her face was a while ago. She reached for her pockets and outreached both if her hands, a handmade chocolate resting on top of it. It was wrapped in a cartoon wrapper, and it was my face. Maybe she asked her brother to make a cartoon form of my face and printed it as a gift wrap. I'm flattered.

"I won't be here at Valentines, but you know my address in case you, you know, want to give me something at White Day." She blushed, biting her lower lip, and then, put her head down as her feet fidget. "I like you, Ji."

My body just suddenly tensed up, unable to content what was happening before me. The girl I like...likes me?

Before I turned into stone and completely forgot what I wanted to say all this time, I grinned, grabbed the chocolate together with her hand and pulled her into an embrace. Sandy was taken aback by it, but remembered to hug me. She cuddled my chest and I felt her bring in my scent to her nose.

My first girlfriend.

"It's funny," She says, chuckling lightly. "That I'm being your girlfriend and I'm breaking up with you at the same time."

I froze. "Did I say it out loud?"

She nodded against my chest.

I looked down at her, momentarily breaking the hug with our hands still wrapped at the back of each other. "What were you saying about breaking up?"

"You know we can't have a relationship when I'm at Busan and you're at Seoul, Ji." She smiled. "But I'm still counted, so I'm Girlfriend Number One."

"We can mail each other or-"

She laughed, placing a finger on my lips. "We can't. We're just fourteen. We don't do what adults do."

"But-"

She again placed her finger on my lips. "Do you believe in destiny?"

I shook my head.

"Believe," She says, touching the part of my chest where my heart is located. "And I know we'll meet again."

Then, we hugged again, tighter this time. I can still feel the weight of her lips against my cheek. It was soft, and felt great. I feel like I'm the king of the world.

I heard the door of our house loudly shut from our spot.

Jaejoong and I never talked again, and our fights started to get bigger and bigger. From girls to studies to family and attention and then, to material things. He always gets mad when I get the upper hand on some things. I started to see him as a different person. Do we always have to be on a tie?

Then, we both had the same occupation in different agencies. We both got accepted on two of South Korea's three best entertainment agencies. But later on, his band got disbanded, and he only had few projects individually.

Then came the night he called me, the night where Yonghwa threw white wine to Eunhye's face. It was just roughly four minutes because the conversation was lopsided; he was just giving me information.

"Do you remember the times and memories we shared, Ji? I'm going to have revenge on the bad parts. I'm going to make you feel the things I felt back when we were kids. I'm going to make you feel what I felt when you got Sandy. And it'll all happen in just one move, Ji. I'm going to marry Sandara Park."

And he ended the call.

"Wait, the girl you met when you were fourteen, Sandy?" Top asked, his hands on the steering wheel.

"Yeah, why?" I asked.

"Dara once told me that she dreams of her past childhood frequently. She told me a story of her being called Sandy by two guys named Ji and Jae." Top paused, humming. "I thought at first she's making things up until I heard your story."

"It cannot be." I laughed, shaking my head. "Wait, I still have Sandy's picture."

As I find my wallet, Top says, "Dara's suffering to an illness where she had forgotten all of the people and memories of her childhood. They only appear in her dreams though, and also sometimes when she tries to remember. They appear in varied forms while people, they just stay as who they are, but Dara can't distinguish them until her past self would call them. I forgot the name of the amnesia. Oh yeah, it's Childhood amnesia." He shrugged. "She's just worried that she would feel guilty nit remembering anyone from her past. Especially, the child she called Ji in her dreams. Like I told you, her story was the same as yours. Dara said the boy was her first boyfriend."

"Then, why she told me Youngbae was her first?" I asked, finally found my wallet and opened it, finding Sandy's picture inside.

"She just remembered those memories when she met you. Funny, though."  
Top chuckled as he turned right.

"Aha!" I grinned, and showed Top the picture. Sandy was fourteen at the picture, which she gave to me before she left for Busan. Her long black hair was tied up in a ponytail, her eyes smiling sweetly back at the camera, her thin small lips that made her look like a baby was curved up into a smile, her cheeks blushing in deep shades of red, her thin high nose scrunching lightly so tiny creases appeared on her forehead, and she was wearing our uniform. It was picture day.

"I have that one too!" Top exclaimed and using one hand, pulled his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans. With his hands both on the steering wheel, his other hand still holding the wallet, he pulled out a picture from one of the card slots without taking an eye out of the road. When he got the picture, he tossed his wallet on the dashboard, and showed it to me.

It was the same freaking picture. Sandy in her uniform, looking beautiful in her own silly way on a picture day.

Top grinned, stopping the car when the red light flashed. "Dara gave it to me when I found it in one of her moving boxes that she forgot to pack out since they arrived. I plead her to give the last piece to me, since she won't need it."

After seconds of laughing, we suddenly turned to each other with crazy faces, our eyes speaking with each other rather than our mouths. And with loud screams, we shouted, "AHHHHHHH! DARA IS SANDY! AHHHHHHHH!"

Then, we screamed again as Top speed out when the green light flashed. He turned carefully to the right again, entering an exclusive subdivision and stopped at the first house on the right. I quickly went out of the car, and rang the doorbell fast, keeping on pushing the button until my brother-in-law and my sister steps out of the house with my nephew.