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JAKE
"It was a battle between my home or under the bridge! Do you want me to leave you under a bridge?!" Jake said after Siyeon realized where they were.
"I would prefer that instead of your house!" Siyeon replied.
"You said anywhere!"
"I never thought you would bring me to your house!"
He pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing very well that their conversation would only go on and on until one of them eventually runs out of patience or comebacks. His home was the only place he could think of plus he doubts Siyeon would check in a hotel, taking into account that no person their age would be carrying a large amount of money, and that she was hiding from her parents. How did he know? Aside from her refusal to go home, she turned her phone on for a short moment, only to be bombarded by it ringing repeatedly. She did not answer her parents nor did she leave any texts. If she had used her credit card, they would've easily tracked her down.
Since when have I been so attentive?
"Just... stay here until the rain stops," Jake said. Sighing in defeat, she frowned, crossed her arms, and looked away from him. Yeah, that's better than shouting.
The gates to his house opened and he parked his car. He grabbed his umbrella from earlier and he allowed one of the housekeepers to open the door for Siyeon. The housekeeper seemed surprised to see an unfamiliar girl with Jake.
He looked at Siyeon, who seemed to have been eyeing his house. "Sir Jake, your parents are home and Miss Hana is also staying for the night." His attention was stolen by the housekeeper informing him about the people inside.
Jake heard Siyeon snort after hearing what the housekeeper called him. "Ms. Go, you don't have to call me that when we have a guest. I told you Jake is fine." He kindly smiled at the older who had reciprocated the smile, even chuckling. "And besides, my guest here would hold that against me for the rest of my life-- ow!" He was cut off by Siyeon stepping on his foot.
"I'm sorry Jake, I just thought it would be necessary since you brought home a new face." She responds, glancing at Siyeon. "The two of you should go in. It's very cold outside."
Opening the door for the two, Jake and Siyeon both entered. He looked around, looking for his parents and Hana, who was supposedly home. "Jake? Is that you?" He immediately stopped searching when his mother called him.
He was going to respond but Siyeon had pinched his arm, forcing him to look in her direction. "Are you not done hurting me at my own home?!" He asked, rubbing the place in his arm where she had pinched him.
She rolled her eyes. "What am I supposed to tell your parents?!" She hissed.
"Just pretend like we're friends," Jake tells her.
Both of them were forced to fix their stance when a woman in her late forties appeared from the side, astounded that her son was not alone when she had approached the doorway to welcome him. She was wearing a white dress and her hair was fixed in a bun. Jake glanced at Siyeon who had a slight smile on her face as she faced the mother of the person, who minutes ago, she yelled at.
"Oh? Who is this lovely girl you're with?" His mother smiled.
"Good evening, I'm Jo Siyeon. Your son's... friend." Jake rolled his lips inward, stifling a laugh when he realized she barely managed to force the word 'friend' out of her mouth.
"It's raining outside so I couldn't leave her on the streets." He explained to his mother, who understood clearly because the sound of the downpour passed through their walls.
"Stay for as long as you like, Siyeon. It's always nice to have Jake's friends around." His mother welcomed Siyeon, oblivious to the fact that they were far from friends. "Honey! We have a guest!" She hollered as if announcing to the whole household that Siyeon was there.
"Is Hyejin here?!" Hana's voice appeared from the staircase along with her footsteps as she ran closer and closer to where her cousin was. "Did Jake bring Hye-- Oh my God." She immediately covered her mouth with her hand upon seeing Siyeon standing next to Jake.
Jake glared at his cousin, pressing his index finger to his mouth as a way to tell her to keep her mouth shut about the true nature of both Jake and Siyeon's supposed friendship. Hana had to look away and take a deep breath to remove the teasing smile that had crept to her lips. She instead replaced it with the pretentious kind smile that she always wore during her father's parties. It was a kind of smile Jake has found himself accustomed to, and he could proudly say, he's one of the two people who could recognize it.
"Hi, I'm Jung Hana, Jake's cousin." Hana extends her hand to Siyeon for formalities. "No need to state your name. I already know you Siyeon, thanks to..." She paused, briefly glancing at Jake, whose glare only got worst, almost as if he was threatening her not to continue the sentence. "...Heeseung. He's a close friend of ours."
Siyeon accepts it, shaking his cousin's hand softly. "I know you as well, Hana. I always see you in the library when I go there." She spoke with no other meaning, but surprisingly, a blush still managed to appear on Hana's face. That confused Siyeon, especially since Jake was stopping himself from laughing.
"Sorry about the cousins, Siyeon. These two are conjoined in the hips, they're always like this." His mother apologized to her son and niece. "Make yourself comfortable and please stay for dinner. It's rare Jake brings home a friend that isn't part of his little group or his childhood friend."
Hana guides Siyeon to the living room and before Jake could go to his room, his cousin immediately gets a hold of his arm. "What?" He asked her.
"You better tell me what's going on here." She whispers to him, looking at the living room and then back to him. "Since when were you two close enough to introduce her to aunt and uncle?"
"Hana, it's raining outside. I couldn't just leave her there, plus she doesn't want to go home." He explained.
"Fine. Though it seems dinner would be fun considering I'd have to pretend like the two of you get along." The smirk on Hana's face annoyed him.
"Do whatever you want." He sighed, lightly flicking her on the forehead before walking past her to make his way to his bedroom. "Oh and also, are you busy with anything?"
"If I told you I was studying, would you believe me?"
He scoffed. "No."
"Well, then I'm not." Hana proudly smiled, earning a chuckle from her cousin. "You need me to keep her occupied?" She asked, and he nods, not even astounded by how she immediately figured out the intention behind his question.
Making his way to his room, Jake decided to wear one of his hoodies and not his usual household clothes that he's been wearing since the age of 16. He wasn't going to give Siyeon more reason to tease him, plus it was etiquette to look proper in front of a guest, just not too formal since she was just a classmate of his.
Jake only returned to the living room when he was called to dinner where Siyeon was convinced to join. Hana had a mischievous look on her face as soon as she locked eyes with Jake, who, at that time, was descending the stairs. Everyone was already seated and the only vacant spot was the seat located to the left of Hana. He noticed Siyeon was sitting next to Hana's right, therefore his cousin was in between the two enemies.
"It looks like the rain isn't going to stop anytime soon. Do we need to call you a cab home, Siyeon?" His mother offered, looking at the window where the rain was far from stopping.
Jake quickly looks at her and it didn't even take him a hard time to realize the distraught on her face. "My parents insisted I don't go home for a while since the rain is far from stopping and I doubt they're home anyway." She said, which he knew was a lie.
"They have a point, it's too dangerous to be driving in the night while it's raining." Hana comments, earning nods from his parents. "Why don't you stay here for the night then?"
Jake almost choked on the meat in his mouth after hearing his cousin's abrupt suggestion. Luckily, they were too preoccupied with Siyeon's response to even notice his reaction.
"I-I shouldn't! That's too much!" Siyeon was quick to turn the offer down.
"It's fine Siyeon. You're a friend of our son, plus we're not very new to his friends sleeping here." His mother insisted after Siyeon rejected the offer made by Hana. "Isn't that right, Jake?"
Jake stopped chewing his food and he could hear Hana coughing when his name suddenly came up along with a question. He swallowed first before answering his mother.
"A-A friend is always welcome." He forced the words to come out of his mouth, and he was so sure that his cousin was dying out of her inability to let out the laugh threatening to escape.
"I'm still trying to figure out where I know you from, Siyeon." His mother looked intently at the younger as she tried to figure out where she knew her. "Do we know any Jo, dear?" She looked at her husband, who seemed to be thinking deeply.
"We know a lot of people, dear." His father replies.
"Jo Hangyeol and Shin Minseo. They're my parents." Siyeon suddenly spoke and everyone's eyes widened when they all realized who those people were.
"T-They're your parents?!" Jake gasped.
The married couple was both doctors who graduated from the best medical schools in the world, and not only that, they owned one of the biggest hospitals in the world. Their family was even richer than his and Hana's, which pretty much sums up why everyone on the table wore staggered expressions.
"Oh, I remember now! I visited your home once and you were in the family portrait with your brother." His mother finally remembered how she knew Siyeon.
Siyeon sat there awkwardly, and she seemed very familiar with the reactions she was getting, judging by how normal her face was. "I know your parents as well! My father and I had lunch with them. They mentioned you and your brother were supposed to attend, but you were sick and your brother was taking care of you." Hana adds.
"That sounds right," Siyeon replied, glancing in Jake's direction and when she realized his gaze was on her, she immediately tore away from the eye contact.
"They were... interesting people," Hana said, earning a smile from Siyeon as she understood what the former meant by that.
"Then are you going to be a doctor, Siyeon? Are you going to follow your parents' footsteps like Hana and Jake here?" His father asked her.
Siyeon shook her head. "No, only my older brother is inheriting the hospital, so I'm free to choose my path."
Instead of looking at Siyeon, Jake's eyes traveled to his cousin who he knew had always been sensitive regarding inheritance. "I wonder how that feels," Hana mutters, just enough for him to hear, earning a slight nudge from him under the table. She winces in pain, glaring afterward at her cousin.
"I think we should stop asking Siyeon questions and let her eat." Jake decided to stop his parents from asking her more questions, afraid that they may put her in a tough position once she is asked a question she wouldn't be able to answer.
They stopped talking about Siyeon but the attention was passed to Hana after, but she was used to it. Small talk was after all a common practice in the family. As soon as dinner ended, Jake was asked to tell Siyeon where the guest room was.
"Don't worry, it's cleaned," Jake assured her as he opened the door.
"Well, thanks." She said, entering the room, and just as when she was about to close it, she managed to say a sentence. "Goodnight, Sim." There was a thin smile on her face before she closed the door fully.
Instead of heading to his room, he found himself knocking on Hana's room. It didn't take the girl very long to open it and his eyes widened when he sees his dog inside the room. "I have been looking for Layla since earlier and you had her the whole time?!"
"That's on you, my oblivious cousin. Now, why are you here? Around this time you'd be on your phone with Hyejin." Hana said, glancing at her phone to confirm if her assumption was right.
"I have questions to ask, can I come in?" He asked and she nods quickly, opening the door wider for him. "It's about Siyeon's parents."
"Ah, so the nosiness begins. Ask away." She sat on her bed while he sat on the carpeted floor, calling his dog to his arms.
Jake scoffed, but he didn't take very long to move past it since he was nosy. "What were her parents like? You had a very auspicious comment about them."
"I didn't like them. They think very highly of themselves if dad didn't want to be on good terms with them, he would've stormed off." She admits her honest thoughts. "Well if we think about it, if I had the same achievements as them, I think my head would inflate a little. Why are you asking about them anyway? Aside from the known fact that you're nosy, of course."
Ignoring her unnecessary comment, he answered her question. "Remember when I told you about her health evaluations every week? I don't know, it just never made sense to me. She never once looked sick to me so it made me wonder why her parents were so strict."
"Now we know her parents are both doctors. Still, I'm really curious." He adds, thinking clearly which for some reason made Hana smile. "Why are you smiling?"
"No, it's nothing. I just find you amusing sometimes, my very nosy cousin." She shrugged, but he knew her better than anyone else to know that there was more to her reason. His eyes narrowed while forcing her to say whatever she was concealing, and out of annoyance, she threw a pillow straight at his face. "Can we just go back to our original topic?"
"Fine. You mentioned she was sick during your lunch with her parents, do you think she's... ill?" Jake remembered asking Siyeon that but the girl barely gave her an answer, and for a second, he regretted not asking more about it. He quickly pushed those regrets aside as soon as he recalled he was in no position to ask the questions that were personal to her.
"A possibility, but let's not assume things." Hana reminds him. "Keep your nose out where it's not supposed to belong for now."
He agreed, and then they proceeded to talk about something else such as why his cousin was in their house again. Although it was not a fun topic to talk about, it kept his mind far from Siyeon who was just across the hall, and besides, it was his chance to listen to Hana's concerns and help her. It has always been his job, to help her in any way he could.
Their conversation was only cut short when Hana kicked him out of the room so she could rest. He left Layla inside the room to comfort her just in case, and when he was about to head to his room, he stopped in his tracks and decided to go downstairs instead to make himself tea before going to sleep. He managed to catch a glance at the wall clock and his eyes widened when he realized it was almost midnight.
Hana and I got carried away talking to each other. He thought.
Rather than the usual darkness that normally engulfed their kitchen, he was surprised to see the lights open. He walked closer until he heard Siyeon's voice speaking to someone. Immediately hiding, he pressed his back on the wall separating the kitchen from the dining table. He stood closer to the doorframe so he could hear her better.
"I'll be home tomorrow. I didn't run away nor did I shower in the rain." Siyeon seemed tired as she spoke to the other line.
She finally answered their call?
"Mom, I told you I didn't tell them anything." That line alone piqued Jake's interest. "I'll take care of myself, don't worry yourself too much. Bye."
He heard the sound of her phone slamming down the table followed by a continuous silence that he found quite hard to disturb. But with his luck, Siyeon managed to do it for him.
"I can see you, Sim. Stop hiding by the doorframe." He wondered if she had magic powers only to realize that part of his head was exposed when he had tried to take a peek at her. "You're the worst hider ever. Who hides with their forehead exposed?"
"I was going to take a peek of you." He rolled his eyes, exposing himself by finally entering the kitchen.
"You were eavesdropping, weren't you?" She asked and he nods, finding no point in lying when the truth was too obvious. "Why?"
"Because you're the biggest mystery I have encountered." He tells her, looking straight at her eyes which never seem to glow even under the light. She always seemed so empty, so lifeless. Even when she's blazing in anger, her eyes never seem to speak much.
There was no figuring her out.
"If you figure it out..." She trailed off.
"You'll wish you never did."
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AUTHOR'S NOTE :
don't overthink anything :>