After a few days, I decided to change my itinerary. I hadn't yet ventured into Chaewon's house. Going there while she was at work would give me some clues about her life, namely whether she was living with that idiot. I'd decided that I needed as much information as possible before confronting her, even if any findings might get me down.
As I walked up to the little brown bungalow, I realized that the outside was just like Chaewon: quirky, a bit messy, but unconventional and surprisingly beautiful at the same time. The first thing that caught my eye was the grass in front. It looked like it hadn't been cut for months. What kind of fucking person lets the grass at her woman's house get almost a meter high?
Idiot.
Wearing my baseball cap and sunglasses, I looked around to make sure there were no nosy neighbors. Peering through the window, I saw that the inside was much tidier than the outside. The living room had cream-colored furniture and there were artificial flowers on the coffee table. Nothing indicated that a man lived there.
I almost fell into the bushes when I saw a shadow moving. It couldn't be Chaewon, because I'd waited until she'd entered her office building before coming here.
Who the hell was in her house?
Adrenaline rushed through me. Deciding to walk to the window on the other side of the house, I crossed the garden, grumbling again about the tall grass.
I was startled when I saw him, glued to the window pane. He wasn't just any guy.
- I can't believe it! - I shouted.
My voice must have scared him.
Carré?! Holy shit. Carré!
Through the window, I saw that the kid was on the ground. He had fainted. Of course he had. Shit. I kept banging on the glass to try and wake him up.
- Come on, little man. Wake up.
After a few minutes, he finally stirred and stood up. Carré kept walking around in circles and looked dazed. I had to get to him and decided to try to open the window. Then I would change it if necessary. To my surprise, it opened at the first push.
Was Chaewon crazy to leave the window open? She must have slept like that too, making it easy for any crazy person to get into her room if they wanted to.
I needed to remember that in the future.
I had already put half my body through the window. Waving my hands so that the blind goat would come to me, I spoke:
- Dude! It's me. Come here, buddy.
The animal came straight towards me and put its little face in the palm of my hand. Lightly scratching its head as I used to do, I said:
- Good boy. I can't believe you're still here.
I muttered to myself:
- You're crazy, princess. Too crazy. But I'm glad you stayed with him.
Maybe I was going crazy, but he seemed to remember me. He let out a long "bááá" and, the second time, I could have sworn it sounded like a "daaaad".
- What's going on here, eh? You're my spy. Is she happy? Does she hate me? Tell me.
- Béé.
I scratched her head harder.
- Yeah, you're not much help. - He started licking my face. - Oh my God. I never thought his horrible breath would be so welcome.
Carré wouldn't let me go. I thought that suddenly one of the neighbors might suspect me of being a thief. Being arrested was the last thing I needed right now. My eyes ran around the room and I saw a suit hanging on the closet door. My heart sank.
I kissed his forehead.
- I have to go. I'll come back to see you. I promise.
He grunted.
- I know, I know. You don't trust me anymore. And rightly so. I need to earn your trust again.
For the first time, I noticed a piece of metal around his neck.
- What's that? Did she put a collar on you? - I took a closer look at the name.
Pixy.
Hope filled my heart, which suddenly started beating faster. I rubbed my thumb over the letters. After everything I'd been through in the last two years, don't ask me why this moment was the first that almost made my eyes fill with tears. It was the push I needed to continue on this path - a small hope that maybe she wouldn't want me dead after everything I'd done.
It took me a few minutes to disentangle myself from Pixy. He was trying to jump through the window to get away with me, but I finally managed to close it.
When I turned around, the little goat's face was still leaning against the window. Perhaps I could have wandered around the house to get more clues about Chaewon's life, but that would have been crossing a line. As I'd said to Carré... Pixy... I had to earn my place back in their lives, not impose it.
There was one more thing I needed to do before heading back to the city center. I remembered passing a building and gardening supplies store on the way there.
After a quick stop, I returned with a modest lawnmower.
It took me about forty minutes to mow Chaewon's lawn. When I reached the side of the house, Pixy was still waiting in the same spot. Some of the neighbors passed by, and I waved with a huge smile on my face. I hoped they assumed that she had kicked the other woman's lazy ass and left her for me, who actually looked after her girlfriend's yard. Or maybe they just thought I was a landscaper.
Admiring the soft trails along the grass, I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand. My work there had come to an end, but the endeavor that would require more effort was just beginning.
~~~☆~~~
That night, somehow, I lost track of her. Either she left in the middle of the afternoon or she was working overtime. After waiting until half past eight, I finally gave up and went straight to the bar. A huge sense of disappointment washed over me. Seeing Chaewon at the end of the day had become my reward, and I felt cheated.
- Yuna, darling, see me one - I asked, sitting down on the usual stool.
She was wiping down the counter.
- Zuzu! You're late today. Are you working overtime as a stalker?
- Yeah. Today wasn't very good.
She stopped cleaning to get my drink.
- What happened?
- I don't know what happened, but I didn't see you at the end of the day.
- You're losing your touch - she said, placing my Cuba Libre on the dark wood counter.
- I'm becoming less... perceptive, perhaps.
Yuna leaned her elbows on the counter, showing off her breasts.
- Did anything good happen today?
I started to laugh.
- Actually, something important happened. I found my goat.
- Your what?
I laughed again.
- My goat. The animal.
She widened her eyes.
- What's it like?
I told her about how Chaewon and I found it and what happened while we were on the road.
- Ah... that's so cute. So he's like your son.
- That's what Chaewon used to say.
She must have noticed the melancholy appearing on my face.
- Something wrong?
- There was a jacket hanging in the room. I think she's living with Chaewon. They could be engaged or married.
- Well, you have no way of knowing, do you? Because you haven't spoken to her. - She took the cloth and hit me playfully on the head.
- I have to take it easy. I don't want to ruin everything.
- There's a difference between taking it easy and avoiding taking action. How long are you going to lurk like this? You just need to rip off the band-aid, man.
Taking the last sip and slamming the glass down on the counter, I spoke:
- I hate it when you're right.
- Then you must hate me all the time. - She winked.
~~~☆~~~
Chaewon looked beautiful as she walked to work the next morning. It was windy, which made her hair curl. As usual, she stopped at Starbucks to get her coffee before entering the building.
The pain in my chest was greater than ever, because I knew that D-Day was coming. Even though I had promised to "rip off the band-aid in the next few days", I still didn't know how to approach her.
When she finally entered the building, I let out a deep sigh and got out of the truck to go into Starbucks and get my coffee. Hungover again, I didn't hear the alarm clock and was too late to risk going in and paying for her latte.
I decided to try something new. I wanted to try Chaewon. I wish I could. Instead, I decided to try the exquisite coffee she always ordered to see what it tasted like.
- I want a skim latte with three squirts of vanilla, very little foam and very hot.
The cashier's face always seemed to light up when she saw me.
- Are you going to order her drink... for you?
- To change things up a bit, yes.
- What's your name?
- Why do you need my name?
- It's just the procedure with special drinks. We write it on the glass.
- Ah... Kazuha.
She wrote my name on the glass with a black pen, and I went to the other side of the counter, where the drinks were taken.
I watched the barista make some of the drinks that were in the queue before mine. What a hell of a process between steaming and foaming. It was a good thing it was complicated, since it cost five dollars.
Then I heard the cashier's voice.
- Chaewon. What are you doing back here so early?
My eyes went quickly to her, but at the same moment I pulled down my baseball cap and turned towards the back wall. My heart was pounding. My chest was tight. I felt like throwing up. A rush of adrenaline.
Oh, fuck.
Oh, fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
My heart had never beaten so fast. I heard her voice behind me.
- My girlfriend came into my office to talk to me and knocked over my coffee with her elbow. She spilled it all on the table.
Damn
- I'm so sorry. I'll make you another one for free.
- Thank you so much, Melanie. I appreciate it.
It felt like the walls were closing in on me. The sound of milk boiling suddenly seemed deafening. I wondered if I could sneak out, with my back to the wall, until I was behind it and outside. As soon as I started to move, the boy who was making my coffee shouted:
- Kazuha!
- Did you say Kazuha? - Chaewon asked.
At that moment, I was right behind her.
Melanie, who probably thought I just had an innocent crush on Chaewon, decided that this would be a good time to play cupid. She fingered me.
- Kazuha is the person who paid for your coffee the other day. She's right over there.
Chaewon turned around so quickly that he accidentally leaned on a stack of iced coffee cups, knocking them over like dominoes.
Seemingly unaware of the disaster she had just created, she stared at me with her hand over her chest as if she were holding her heart.
I took off my baseball cap and placed it on my chest. With pleading eyes, I whispered:
- Princess...
Looking as if she had just seen a ghost, she shook her head slowly, as if to say "this can't be happening".
I took a step towards her.
She raised her hand, making me stop.
- No! Don't you dare come near me.
My heart sank in my chest, and I felt as if my insides were twisting.
This was not how I had imagined things happening.
I raised my palms.
- It's all right. But please listen to me.
- Are you following me?
- Not exactly.
We were silent. Humiliated, I bent down and started to pick up the glasses she had knocked over. Chaewon stood in the same place.
Nosy Melanie spoke from behind the counter:
- Why don't you listen to what she has to say?
Chaewon's breathing was still heavy. She finally spoke:
- Let me ask you something, Melanie. If a guy made you believe he cared about you, had sex with you and left before the next morning without so much as a goodbye note, would you listen to him?
- Probably not. - She laughed and added: - Well, if he was a hottie like Kazuha, maybe. - One of the other attendants laughed.
Chaewon looked at me, shooting me with her eyes, and continued:
- Right... What if he didn't get in touch for two years after that and then suddenly turned up, following you around the city where you live. Would you hear him?
- No way - said Melanie. - That's strange.
- Case closed.
Chaewon walked past me and out the door. And left.
Feeling as if she had just ripped out my heart and given it to me to eat, I stood there, defeated, in the middle of Starbucks.
After a minute of staring out of the store window, I heard a voice inside my head that sounded a lot like my mother's.
"Act like an adult and fight for her."
And that marked the end of my subtle attitude.
I ran out, hoping to locate her before she entered the building.
There was no sign of her. Running through the revolving doors, I saw Chaewon waiting for the elevator. As soon as she got into one, I put my hand on the doors to hold them open.
She was alone.
Tears were streaming down her face. She was crying.
As the elevator began to rise, I pressed the button that would stop it.
- What are you doing? - she shouted.
Gasping, I said:
- If this is the only way to get you to listen to me, then so be it.
- You can lock me up here for, uh, I don't know, TWO years if you want. I won't talk to you. Maybe then you'll understand how I felt.
Pressing her against the wall with one arm on either side of her trembling body, I said:
- I'm glad to see you're still as stubborn as ever, princess.
Seeming uncomfortable with my closeness, she swallowed before saying:
- I need to get back to work. Unlock that elevator or I'll call the police.
- I understand you're in shock. You shouldn't find out like that.
- Is there a good way to find out that the person who broke your heart is now following you?
She was right.
- Probably not. But you have to let me explain.
The words she spoke next were hard to hear.
- Do you know how long it took me to get over you? It's only now that my life is getting back to normal. You can't come back after two years and expect me to just accept that I fought so hard to give you up. I finally gave up. Please. I'm begging you to leave.
My chest was so tight it felt like it was going to explode.
She had given up on me.
Well, I'm sorry. I'm back.
- I'm going... for now. But I'm not leaving town until you agree to let me explain what happened. If you still want me to disappear after hearing everything, then I swear to God, Chaewon, you'll never see me again for as long as you live.
Her eyes began to fill with tears again as he looked into mine. Without looking away, I released the stop button and pressed the number for the next floor.
- I'm staying at the Sunrise Hotel, room eight. My cell phone is still the same. Call me when you're ready to hear me.
When the doors opened, I stepped out of the elevator, leaving Chaewon with the responsibility of taking the next step. I just hoped she would choose to walk towards me.
...
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Author's notes; Guys, what did you think of the chapter? Let me know what you guys think about this...🤔
Guys, I think I'm starting to become a bunny (nwjns fan)🥲 what do you think? I'm loving the girls!😍
I can even think about future projects involving NWJS...👀