"Listen to my heartbeat,
it calls you whenever it wants to"
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I spent the Monday morning here in mom's car as I stared at my phone inside, still waiting for a beautiful boy named Kim Taehyung to text me back. I had sent him good morning and good night text messages, but he never replied to a single one. Is it really even his real phone number? I kept asking myself as I repeatedly hit my head against the window.
"What's wrong with you?" My mom asked. Her eyes focused on the road, and her brows furrowed in annoyance.
"Taehyung isn't texting me," I replied with a sigh.
"Then, call him."
"Call him?" I asked as if asking her if is she for real?. "No, he should be the one calling me first, and I don't want to sound like a possessive girlfriend, mom."
"I was just suggesting." She said. Once I saw students walking toward the school, the car stopped in front of the gate. I bid my mom goodbye and kissed her on the cheek before I climbed down. But then, she called me again. "Areum,"
"Yeah?" Mom pointed her finger at a boy standing in front of the gates of the school. I looked at where she was pointing and saw that it was that suspicious boy from the public school. When I looked at him, he smirked and waved his hand.
"Is he your friend?" She asked, and waved at the boy with a wide smile on her face.
"Uhm, yeah." I lied, awkwardly waving my hand at the boy. I didn't want to worry my mom that some random guy from the public school was talking to me, so I just lied. "I met him in a sport fest last year."
"Really? That's great! You're making friends outside of school." She smiled proudly.
Then, I turned to that boy when I saw him approaching our direction and stood next to me right outside the car. He draped his arm over the car door then bent down a little to greet my mom. "Good morning, Mrs. . ."
"Mrs. Kwon, dear." She said, extending her arm towards the boy, and the latter shook her hand. "You're such a good-looking man. Your skin looks so soft." She complimented, and he thanked her. "Well, I know you two have a lot of catching up to do, so I better go." She both looked at us, "Bye, kids!"
"Bye, mom."
"Bye, Mrs. Kwon." The boy closed the door shut before the vehicle lurched forward. As soon as mom's car left, I hurriedly walked my way towards the entrance gate. I didn't like staying with this creepy guy for long. But then, I heard him spoke. "Wow, now you're just being rude." He said with a raspy smug voice behind me which made me stop my mark.
I turned around to see him then walked two or three steps towards his direction, "What do you even want from me?" I was pissed. I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Take it easy on me, baby girl. I came here for you. Don't get mad now." He faked sulking for a quick second then shoot me a smug smile.
"Don't call me that." I gritted my teeth, "Are you stalking me? Or probably Taehyung?" I glared at him, "What do you really want from us?"
"Didn't I come here to warn you about that kid? I'm actually here to help you."
"I don't need your help,"
"Oh, you'll need it, alright. You'll need me soon." He smirked, "Plus, I've known Taehyung for a long time now. I know his deepest secrets. I know everything about him. And hey, you know what, it's actually the first time I've seen him with another girl aside from Solji. So, are you a thing now? Do you really know him that well?"
"You know Solji?" All he said didn't process to my head, but when I heard him said Solji, I lost it. He caught me off guard. He did know him.
"Of course, she's my cousin." He said, and I narrowed my eyes at him again. He's messing up with me.
"Cut it, psycho. Don't lie to me, alright. You're probably just some random stalker who had seen Taehyung and I with Solji or something like that." I told him. And now, he seem to caught my attention. It felt like he really knew a thing or two about them, but I kept denying it. "I don't believe you."
"It's up to you. But whenever you change your mind," He paused, and fished out a piece of paper—more specifically a bubble gum wrapper and a pen from his pocket. He placed the wrapper in his palm, and wrote something. "here's my number. You can ask me anything about Taehyung and Solji, and I might tell you anything I know about them." He said, folding the small wrapper in half and handed it over to me. "Take it."
I glanced at his face to see how pale he really was and how his skin looked so soft and smooth that it didn't look like there were pores in his face at all. Slowly, I lifted my hand and retrieved it with a heavy heart. Then, his blank stares landed on my face first. I tightly hold the paper in a closed fist as I watched him walked away then decided to walked inside the school gates.
When I reached the classroom, Taehyung's empty seat was the first one which caught my attention. I immediately fished my phone out of my skirt's pocket and sent him a text saying:
Hey Taehyung. Where are you?
Are you going to school today?
I want to see you. :'(
Sent: 7:19 AM
I sighed before I finally sat down on my seat. Byunghun said hi to me happily, and told me that Yeri and Sooyoung came here earlier looking for me. He said they will tell me something important. I rolled my eyes mentally. Important? For sure they will just ask me for a sleepover at my house sooner or later.
Hours later, the bell rung indicating classes were over. Throughout the day, I couldn't help but stared at my phone, still waiting for him to text me back. Byunghun and I walked out of the room. It felt a little different without Taehyung with us. It really felt incomplete. Before we could even reach the gates, Sooyoung and Yeri came running toward us. Byunghun said goodbye to me first then to them after.
Yeri linked her arm around mine and leaned her head against my shoulder while Sooyoung put her hand on my other shoulder, "You two are planning a sleepover, don't you?" I asked monotonously.
"Ding-dong! Oh my gosh, you're so smart! How did you find out?" Yeri said, smiling. And I only rolled my eyes.
"Come on, Areum! We haven't seen you that much. We go to different classes and stuff, so we seldom see you." Sooyoung pouted, sticking her lower lip out as she rubbed her hands togetehr to plead with me.
"Plus, you're always with Taehyung these days. You usually spent most Fridays with us, but you spent it with Taehyung now." Yeri said.
"In a pub." Sooyoung added, "Since when did you start going there?"
"How did you know?"
"You're mom told us,"
"Come on, Areum. Just one Friday." She said, showing her index finger right in front of my face. "Just one Friday at my place, please!"
"No Sungjae. No Taehyung—"
"No Jihyung!" Yeri piped up, cutting off Sooyoung.
"No Jihyung? Are you still together?" Sooyoung asked, judging her.
She nodded her head timidly, "We're together again. Just three days ago." She giggled. Sooyoung and I rolled our eyes. We hated that jerk. Yeri was too good for him, even if she was a little noob headed.
"Well, whatever. I'm in then. Friday at Yeri's place after class. No boys." I said then looked at Yeri this time, "We also need to talk about that Jihyung of yours."
"Yey!" Sooyoung cheered, hugging me. "We'll have so much fun! I'm so excited!"
"I suddenly feel nervous." Yeri said, placing her other hand on her chest before looking at us. We just laughed at her as we walked out of the school. Our arms linked together happily. As we were walking, I saw him again. The sound of my friends' laughter slowly toned down in my head like it was muted all of a sudden, and then my gaze locked on his appearance. He was with his group of friends as well, walking the opposite direction. The boy smiled smugly, waving his hand before he walked passed us. My friends didn't notice him at all. I looked over my shoulder to see him looking at my direction as well. Our gazes met.
I badly wanted to talk to him—know all the things about what he knew about Kim Taehyung, but I'm scared, not because of him but because of the truth that he might tell me. The truth about Taehyung and Solji. Maybe, I was even at fault myself. Maybe, I already knew the truth but I just kept denying it.