Delilah was with him at the event, and Jeremiah was adamant that he would not leave her by herself and leave with his other friends on the opposite side of the hall. But from here, he could see the other girls motioning for him to come over, and it was becoming overwhelming. He could certainly just take Delilah along, but she wasn't a big fan of his group of friends. He was aware that it was important for him to be there for her because she didn't have many friends and only really hung out with him or Kenzie at school.
He was also her plus one, after all.
It had been half an hour since they first arrived at the event and several guests — well, teenagers — were slowly occupying the space from inch to inch. Even his friend group's attendance was growing in size, but still, they were all hanging around the other side of the hall, a bit far from where Delilah and he were currently standing.
He would only smile as Delilah spoke to him, her enthusiastic voice and apparent passion for whatever she was saying evident in the way her eyes sparkled. He genuinely wanted to be there for her, but he also realized that he was beginning to get a little bored. The opposite side of the hall would provide him with the more lively environment he was used to. Maybe even more of motivation to stay here longer considering how much he didn't want to come here in the first place.
Just then, he heard another one of his friends call out again, "Jeremiah, Come here! Chase wants to show you something!"
Knowing how important this evening was for Delilah, Jeremiah certainly shouldn't have asked, but he reassured himself by telling himself he was going to return to her eventually. Delilah focused her gaze up at him, waiting for him to speak the words that were written all over his face. He didn't need to say anything, though, because she understood immediately. She only sighed, like he was a boy asking his mother for permission to do something. Even though he had been trying not to make it seem obvious that he wanted to catch up with his other friends, he figured that she had probably caught him glancing in that direction throughout the entire time anyway.
"Fine."
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah . . . I know you want to."
"That's — thanks, Dell. I'll be with you soon. You should get yourself something to eat in the meantime." He grinned like a little boy, reaching out to gently touch her arm before he pulled away and scurried away towards the others. She watched with sadness as his smile widened as soon as he was in the presence of the other girls, even hugging a few of them.
Delilah sighed and peered around the enormous hall to see everyone else having a good time. No one was lingering around by themselves like she was at the moment; instead, everyone was partying on the dance floor and enjoying the refreshments and snacks.
She then decided to listen to what Jeremiah suggested and made her way over to the drink and snacks bar, where she took a seat alone and ordered herself a glass of fruit punch.
Meanwhile, a high school boy who was named Hansel Chwe was also present at the event. While two of his friends, the guys he attended the event with, were making out with a few of the event's girls, he was leaning against the wall, aimlessly scrolling through the apps on his phone. Although he wasn't very interested in his surroundings, it was the weekend and he didn't really need to think about his job at the moment. Also, he wanted to lend as much support as he could to the event because it was being hosted for a worthwhile cause.
However, one individual who caught Hansel's interest was a girl he didn't know. She was sipping something from a cup while sitting alone at the bar. He could immediately tell that she was incredibly beautiful from here. Despite her gloomy facial expression, he was captivated by her subtleties, such as her royal blue dress, which fell just before her knees and shone as if it was made just for her. Moreover, her dark hair colour complimented her bronzed skin. A part of him wanted to go up to her and introduce himself, but another part of him was feeling quite shy.
Despite himself, he would find his gaze occasionally landing on her even while he was trying to stay occupied with his friends. It had been quite a while since she'd been sitting there — he'd been trying to muster up the wits to approach her for well over an hour now — and it didn't seem like she was here with anyone. But what was the reason behind her sad expression? Was she upset about something?
Just before he could think more about this, his friend Marcus walked up to him. "Hey, dude, Sam wants to head home so I'm dropping her off."
"Oh—Cool," Hansel replied as he turned to face him. "Use protection."
"Jesus — it's not like that!" Marcus attempted to explain, his face turning crimson.
"Not yet anyway." Hansel shrugged. "What about Seok-hoon?"
"He left a while ago with some girl. Didn't you notice?"
Hansel raised a brow. "He did?"
"Yeah — they hit it off pretty quick. Like, really quick. I don't know where they went though."
Not even surprised, Hansel thought as he breathed out deeply.
"Okay, I'm off," Marcus said to Hansel before lowering his voice to a whisper. "Why don't you go up to her?"
"Go up to who?"
Marcus gave him a look. "You know who I'm talking about. Don't think I didn't notice you staring at her this whole time. She's pretty . . . and who knows? You two might end up hitting it off with each other."
But before Hansel could feel even a bit embarrassed about the fact that Marcus had noticed his gaze on the girl, he watched as the boy then winked at him playfully before walking off with Samantha. Whoever Samantha was Hansel didn't know nor did he care.
"See you, Marcus."
But the fact that both Marcus and Seok-hoon were gone only meant that he was now at the event alone. He knew nobody here and wasn't keen on doing much socializing or making 'influential' connections tonight. Yeah, yeah, he probably should've considered it given the well-known reputation his family had with the public, but what difference would one night of him just being himself make? Not much, he hoped.
Maybe he should just leave? It wasn't like there was much left to the event now anyway. The food had already been served, the announcements by the hosts made, extra donations were expected to continue to be made well throughout the rest of the night, and now all the guests were simply enjoying themselves. Just as he turned around and decided to head back home for the night, a brilliant idea struck his mind. What if he didn't leave? Not yet, at least. Not until he's finally introduced himself to the mystery girl. He can talk to her and then leave if he wants. Wouldn't be the worst idea he's had. Plus even Marcus had encouraged it.
Making up his mind, Hansel began walking up to the girl, his hands in his pockets. However, he paused midway to check his appearance through his phone screen. Moving his hands through his hair to neaten it up, he then continued on his way. Once he was close enough to her, Hansel cleared his throat in an attempt to gain her attention. But when she didn't so much as glance in his direction, he sighed realizing that she hadn't heard him. And then he noticed her gaze, which was currently turned away from him and staring off into a distance somewhere. He turned his head and followed where she was looking, only for him to realize that she was gazing at a guy he didn't recognize. This guy was acting joyfully with some other girls clinging to his arms, and for a brief moment, Hansel wondered whether she knew him or if she maybe liked him.
Only one way to find out.
"Trouble in paradise?" he started with a playful tone and the girl jumped in her seat, shocked by his presence.
"You scared the living daylights out of me!"
Wow . . . Looking at her from up close, he didn't think that his compliments from earlier did her any justice. She was so much more than just beautiful.
"I like to think that maybe you're just not so used to surprises," he told her softly and took another step closer. Her lips quirked up as if she was about to laugh, but didn't, and remained up like a sweet smile.
So far, so good, he thought.
The girl extended her hand in greeting. "I'm Delilah."
Bingo.
He took her hand and noticed how soft and warm it felt against his own. He shook it once, polite and straightforward, before letting go. He already missed the warmth the little touch offered.
"Hansel," he introduced.
"Hansel . . ." Delilah trailed off. "Do you happen to have a sister named Gretel?"
Oh, so she also had a playful side. Good to know. But it was evident that she was just teasing him by the fact that her lips were turned up like a smirk and she was gazing at him in a way as if she was eager to know what his reaction would be. But he wouldn't give her the benefit of the doubt this easily. "Ha, ha, very funny. It's pronounced Ansel — the H is silent."
As their conversation continued, Hansel realized just how interesting Delilah was. She shared his outlook on being an only child in their respective households, so that was one thing. Besides that, it was comforting to observe that she had both a playful side and a genuine side, which alternated depending on the mood of the topic. Above all else, she was compassionate. And no, it wasn't simply to him or the fact that they were essentially strangers to one another that made it such. Instead, it was apparent from the way she spoke about her friends and family and from the brief shine that flashed from her brown eyes whenever she had something to say. It seemed like a bit of hope and a lot of gratefulness. She was one of a kind.
Meanwhile, Jeremiah was still hanging out with the girls from earlier. They all went to high school together so it wasn't unusual for him to be spending so much time with them. As he took a sip of his fruit punch (despite still being a little annoyed about the fact that this event was strictly non-alcoholic), his eyes moved across the crowd toward Delilah, whom he spotted sitting at the bar. But she wasn't alone anymore. Some guy he didn't know was standing across from her, saying something to her that he couldn't hear that was apparently so funny that it made her laugh.
As he stood back and observed the entire exchange, his smile slowly disappeared. He faintly noticed a strange tugging feeling at his chest, but he ignored it. After all, he shouldn't have cared about what she did with her time. He was the one that left her alone anyways.
Back at the bar, Delilah took a sip of her drink. "So, who are you here with?"
Hansel assumed that she thought that nobody would come to such a lavish charity event like this one alone. It made him wonder even more whether she was here by herself or not. He went on to explain that he was here with a few of his friends, whom he didn't disclose the names of, but that they had run off with a few girls. This wasn't at all far from the truth.
"And you haven't found a girl to run off with yet?"
Her question caused Hansel to furrow his brows slightly in surprise. She didn't sound as though she was trying to flirt with him, yet her words were enough to bring out his uncommonly mischievous side. It had been getting triggered a lot more now, especially around her.
He leaned a little closer. "Does the offer interest you by chance?"
But when Delilah rolled her eyes, he immediately took the hint and leaned away from her. Internally, he was beating himself up because it was definitely way too early to be making any kind of advances, but he had still done so. She didn't seem like the type of girl who enjoyed those quick, fictional-like romances and hookups anyway. To be fair, neither did he.
He explained casually, "I'm not that type of guy . . . The whole partying and hooking up at random thing just isn't my scene. But my folks are out of town and, well, it's the summer. It's not like I have school to worry about or anything."
He really didn't enjoy partying too often. It was on the rare occasions that he would agree to hang out with his friends, that too on the need-to-know basis that they wouldn't be going to some insane party or anything. At company-sponsored dinners and gatherings, he was always expected to mingle with his father's and mother's colleagues, and only God knew when he had had enough of them since the nights would almost always end up with them highly intoxicated. Being the designated driver really sucked sometimes.
The only reasons that he agreed to come to this one were because he knew that they wouldn't be serving alcohol therefore he wouldn't have to be around any annoying drunk teenagers, and because it had been a long while since he'd last been out, so supporting a good cause such as this event was fine with him. His money needed to go somewhere anyway. Well, those were some of the reasons along with the fact that Marcus and Seok-hoon were starting to complain about the fact that he hadn't spent any time with them since summer began, which was ironic since they were the first out of the three of them to leave the event — that too without him.
"I'm here with a friend," Delilah explained after a moment and pointed across the crowd towards the same boy that she was staring at earlier. Oh, so that guy was a friend. But the way she was gazing at him earlier didn't seem to give the explanation much justice.
"A friend?"
"Is that so hard to believe?"
"Of course not," Hansel brushed off easily, not wanting to offend her in any way. But his curiousness was gradually getting the better of him. Maybe he should just ask her straight up: the worst that could happen was that she'd probably roll her eyes at him again. Or maybe she'd end up explaining herself. He gathered that much from her. To be honest, he wasn't sure why he was so curious. "But is a friend all you want to be to him?"
He quickly found his answer when she wrinkled her brows for a split-second, before returning them to normal. So she wasn't good at disguising her feelings after all. But before he could think more about this, Delilah suddenly giggled. It was soft as if she was a celestial goddess — sort of like the feeling of finally discovering nirvana. He couldn't help but be a little awestruck, and he didn't care that the way her laugh made him feel was probably clearly visible on his face.
It just added to her beauty even more.
Meanwhile, Jeremiah was still occupied by the girls from earlier. But he was gradually beginning to lose his patience with them and with the situation. Ever since he first spotted Delilah very much not alone at the bar, he would constantly be looking her way to see what else she was up to. This guy she was talking to had been chatting with her for a while now and was standing closer to her than he was before. He'd also made her laugh more times in such a short while than he'd care to admit. Jeremiah couldn't remember the last time Delilah laughed this much because of something he'd done.
"Hey, Jeremiah." Marissa, one of his friends, captured his attention once more. "You never told us who you were here with."
"Oh — Right. I'm with Delilah. No idea where she went off to though." Lie. He knew exactly where she was.
"I wonder how you both are friends," Marissa then said and he was a little confused by where she was getting at. "I mean, you're both practically different in every way. You're, like, hot and she's not. You're super popular and her not so much. And then you're rich, and I don't know much about her but I don't think—"
"Surely someone's financial state isn't reason enough not to be friends with them, right?" Jeremiah interrupted, voicing his words in a way that would come off as a little defensive but enough to give her a hint. A hint that she needed in his opinion.
Marissa seemed to understand his expression right away, "Oh, um, right. I mean—"
"I mean, I'm friends with you, aren't I, Marissa?" Jeremiah added. "And from what I remember, your family isn't that well off either. If I really wanted to, I could just, you know, unfriend you or something. But I won't. Cause I look past what you don't have."
Marissa bit her bottom, her face becoming a bright shade of red. "Um, I'm gonna go get myself a drink." Jeremiah didn't say anything and instead allowed her to walk away. He knew that she probably wouldn't be back. At least not tonight.
Sighing, Jeremiah's gaze drifted across the crowd again but furrowed his brows once he realized that neither Delilah nor the guy she was with was at the bar anymore. Panic rising from within him, he glanced around the area but didn't spot her right away. Eventually, though, the dance floor began to clear up and it was then that he finally spotted her there — slow dancing with the guy. He fisted his hands by his sides, not bothering to hide his obvious sneer as he watched the two getting a little too close to one another. Her hands were wrapped around his neck, his own on her waist and standing so close to one another that he thought he might get sick.
Now it was getting out of hand. When he had initially left Delilah alone, it was with the assumption that she'd be okay. And even when she began chatting with this other guy, he was okay with it. Maybe she was getting lonely. But now they were dancing together? Ugh.
"Hey, I think I'm gonna head back to Delilah," Jeremiah said decidedly, momentarily turning his head to face the other girls.
"But you're always with her."
"Yeah, Jere. Even at school, you're always hanging out with Delilah."
Jeremiah rubbed the back of his neck, feeling nervous. "Well, she is my best friend."
"Can you please stay? Just a little while longer?"
"Sorry. No can do." His mouth perked up into a cheeky grin before he began walking away, though backward at first since he was still trying to talk to them. "But I'll make it up to you guys, I promise. See ya!"
Without waiting for their responses, Jeremiah turned away and spotted the two back at the bar. His expression turned cold watching as the guy held her hand and pressed a kiss to the top of it. Determined to break them apart, he increased his speed and eventually reached them. His sudden presence ended up startling Delilah, but that wasn't his concern at the moment.
Right now, he just wanted to know who this guy was and why the heck he was getting so close to his Delilah.
But, unfortunately, Jeremiah would later discover that, despite arriving on time, he was actually too late. This guy, whose real name was Hansel, had managed to leave an indelible impression on Delilah in the time that they had been together at this event and this impression would only grow in size over the next few days as they would spend more and more time together. It was something akin to a final, unwavering spark that would later turn into her growing feelings for him and less than two weeks later — dating him.
Hansel would later end up being her first boyfriend; his best friend's first boyfriend. And upon finding out about their relationship only confirmed his own feelings. The feelings that he swore he hadn't started to notice for weeks or had been trying to suppress or playing off amid their summer — were all coming back to haunt him.
As it would turn out, Jeremiah liked Delilah . . .
Even though she was not his to like.
---
Author's Note:
So, I thought I'd add a little extra to "Paper Rings" before I officially conclude season 1. Think of this as my little holiday present to all of you dear readers of mine :)
I hope you enjoyed reading this since it's a little different (and a lot longer) from what I usually present to you guys; reading a specific chapter that I had already published here from the dual POVs of both Jeremiah and Hansel.
The significance of this chapter, in particular, you may wonder? Well, this chapter (originally Chapter 13, if you're curious) sort of sets the tone for the rest of the season. Jeremiah finds out that he actually likes Delilah . . . Delilah begins to consider someone other than Jeremiah for once . . . and another unfamiliar boy enters the mix which has both Delilah and Jeremiah reconsidering their feelings for each other.
Are there any other chapters you'd like me to create an "From His Eyes" of?
Until next time!