The Accidental Star

RECOLLECTION

JI CHANG WOOK

I groggily opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling.

I frowned when I realized that I wasn't in my hotel room.

Where am I?

I squinted my eyes to focus on the ceiling. When I saw the five circular dropped lights hanging from the centre of the room, the very same ones that I had customized in a specialty store in China, I knew then that I was in my room in our Indonesian rest house, a four hour drive from the hotel that we were staying in.

Right, we drove here yesterday.

I felt a slight throbbing in my head and my hand quickly went to it. I recalled having drinks last night. I must be losing my touch if I'm getting a headache after a few petty glasses.

I darted a look at the wall clock hanging above my room door. When I realized that it was almost noon, I quickly kicked the comforters off me and lazily stretched out my arms.

That's when I hit something and yelped in surprise.

" What the-? "

I whipped my head to the other side of the bed and cursed under my breath when I saw the sleeping figure cuddled beside me.

My hands automatically swept through my body and was relieved when I felt clothes on me. I was almost afraid to look at her but forced my eyes to look below her face.

" Shit, " I muttered in relief when I saw that she was still wearing her pajamas.

What happened last night? I thought in panic. Why was Anne here?

I wracked my brain for memories and like lightning, they came flashing before my eyes.

I recalled seeing her go out of her room. Curious what she was up to, I followed and found her standing by the fridge contemplating what food to eat. I knew she was hungry. Except for the mushroom soup that she had at dinner, she hasn't really eaten anything since the day we did the stunt training.

I don't usually cook. Except perhaps on rare occasions when I actually get a day off and I just wanted to eat home cooked food. And I never cook for anyone. Not even for my mother. But I ended up cooking for Anne that night.

It was almost four in the morning when we finished cleaning up the kitchen. I didn't think I will be able to go back to sleep so I planned on staying up and watch the sunrise. I wasn't sure Anne was up for it but I was undeniably overjoyed when she agreed. So we hanged out in the terrace with our full glasses of wine while we wait for the sun to rise.

I smiled at the memory.

Last night was a great night.

Just then, a memory of Anne sitting on my lap wiped the smile off my face.

She kissed me. I thought incredulously.

And damned me, I kissed her back.

I laid there in stunned silence as I tried to sew all fragments of memories together.

I knew she had a little too much to drink and that could be her excuse for kissing me. If I had a clue on why she moved to Seoul, I would not have asked her about it. Telling me about it must have been unnerving for her. Too unnerving that she managed to finish a bottle in minutes.

But I wasn't drunk which gave me no excuse for kissing her back. I had six glasses of wine. While that made my head ache this morning. I knew that was not enough to make me drunk.

Anne stirred in her sleep and I froze. But she didn't wake up.

I slowly shifted my position and laid on my side so I now have a clear view of her face. Very gently, I swiped the  lock of of hair that was partly covering her face and tucked it  behind her ear.