CHAPTER 9: A Day With Him
Today's the first day of their United Nations week. There are no specific events for the day. But everyone is busy building their own booth.
"D.O-ya. What are we going to cook for Thursday?" Chanyeol went to D.O—who's focused on what he was reading.
"Chicken Adobo and Beef Kaldereta? And for desert, Halo-halo? And I still don't know for appetizers." D.O answered with uncertainty with his pronunciations. "And also rice, they eat rice a lot."
"Waa~ Jinjja? Wait. What does that taste?" Chanyeol asked while he was rubbing his chin.
"Why don't we cook it at the H.E. (Home Economic) Room?" They both stood up and they call the rest of the cooking team.
On the other side, Chen was busy sketching for tomorrow's poster making contest. He's thinking how should he portrait his poster. And all while, Luhan and Boram did not even bother to practice since they've already think what should they do. And they just helped the others with their booth.
And lastly, there is Kai and Jiyeon on the other side talking what should they do. And also, Suho's also there to coach the two.
"Soooo... what now?" Jiyeon asked Suho awkwardly.
"The pageant's really easy. All you need to do is to do the catwalk."
"Is that it?" Kai asked. "Nothing else?"
"Afraid not," Suho scanned the pages and only saw catwalk.
"So, are there any winners in this pageant?" Jiyeon asked.
"Nope. No winners," Suho shook his head. "And this is what you're going to wear.
Kai and Jiyeon looked into each other first and went to Suho's back to check the outfits they're going to wear.
"That?" Kai said with disgust on his tone. "That looks so old fashioned."
"Well, I think it looks so elegant," Jiyeon beamed at Kai, making Kai to hold back. He thinks she's so cute with her ponytail on her bangs.
"Oh~" Kai suddenly endeared to the picture that Suho was holding. "I think it's perfect. But don't you think it would be greater if our country was Hawaii?" he added, and both Suho and Jiyeon turned their heads to Kai. "I mean if that's the country we're going to represent. Jiyeon has to wear," he suddenly gestured towards Jiyeon, "coconut bras and straw skirts, right?"
"Aigoo..." Suho was supposed to hit Kai with the paper he was holding but Jiyeon steal in from him.
"You pervert! You perverted young man!" Jiyeon was still hitting Kai, and they were like running around the room.
Kai stopped from running and he shields himself with his hands and said, "What? I mean, we get to show off your—I mean, our sexy body, right?"
Jiyeon's eyes widened in anger and she pinched Kai's right ear, "You! You're not going to get away with this."
"Ya ya ya ya! It hurts." Kai grabs Jiyeon's arm to remove it from his ears, however, Jiyeon's grip was too tight. And if Kai tries to remove it, Jiyeon will tighten her grip more. "Please stop, please stop. I'm begging you. I'm begging you~~ Huhuhu..." He faked-cry and he moved his hand down to Jiyeon's hand, and he holds it tightly, like he's really begging Jiyeon to stop.
Jiyeon doesn't know why, but her heart suddenly beats fast. And she hesitantly removed her hands from Kai's ears.
"Aish..." Kai glared at Jiyeon. However, Jiyeon threatened him by just eyeing him, making Kai to fall back. Seems like the world turns upside down for Jiyeon and Kai.
"I'm going to help the others," Jiyeon told Suho, pointing to her back. Everybody were busy painting, cutting, and crafting for their booth.
"How about..." Suho pulled Jiyeon back, "You two..." He points to Kai and Jiyeon, "go to the bookstore to buy these stuffs." He smiled when he rolled the list-to-buy in front of them.
"Wow!" They both said.
"That's a lot," Jiyeon grabs the list and look closely to it. "How much do you think this gonna cost?" She gulped, worrying about the bill.
"Don't worry," Suddenly Suho grabs something from his pocket. "I'll take care of the bill," he slips his card from his wallet to Jiyeon's hand.
"Jinjja?" Jiyeon said blissfully as she accepts the card. Her eyes were shining like she saw a 100,000 won in the streets. "Waa~ Daebak!"
"Show off," Kai just rolled his eyes. "Kaja [Let's go]."
Jiyeon followed Kai. Jiyeon was still astonished with Suho's generosity (richness). Jiyeon put Suho's card on her wallet. And while she was putting it, she bumped into someone.
"Omo... mianhae," Jiyeon bowed to the guy she bumped into, and when she straightened her body from bowing, she saw Luhan with small plywood on his grip.
"Ya~ Watch were you're going!" Kai shouted at Jiyeon.
"Alright! You don't need to shout, I can hear it clearly. We're not on the market, 'kay?" And Jiyeon turned his head to Luhan. And she wants him to notice that she was wearing his ponytail. But all Luhan did was looked at her bangs, and then walk away.
'Well, at least, he noticed it,' Jiyeon thought, shrugging to herself.
"What are we going to ride?" Jiyeon asked Kai when they finally reached the front gate of their school.
"Of course, we had to ride the taxi," Kai answered as he was looking for taxi to pass by.
"You don't like to ride the bus?" Kai dubiously turned his head to Jiyeon. "What? I like riding bus. It's fun." She smiled. Kai looked at Jiyeon more dubiously. Jiyeon raised her left eyebrow. "What?" Jiyeon asked in a monotone and added, "Rich people can't ride buses?" She said sarcastically. "I knew people like you don't like to ride those stuffs." She rolled her eyes while shaking her head in disconcert with a sarcastic face.
"Bo? Did I say something?" he said sarcastically and added, "You're the who's asking, I just answered. I also love riding buses." Kai put his hands on his pockets and walked ahead of Jiyeon to the bus stop.
Jiyeon grinned. She knew Kai was lying, he hates bus, and it was so obvious. When they were at the bus stop, people were looking at them. Jiyeon was confused why they were looking at them, so she turned her head on the people, but they immediately turned their heads away. Finally, the bus arrived.
Jiyeon sat on the window seat and Kai was on the other. The bus was easily filled by students. And two female students who's seating at their front suddenly turned their heads into them, and they both gave Kai a folded piece of tissue and bowed, "Annyeonghaseyo." And they both returned to their seats.
Jiyeon raised her eyebrows in confusion. And another one gave him a folded paper. Another one, and another one. There were a total of 13 girls who gave Kai folded papers.
The bus stopped in the bus stop. People were filling up more the bus, now people are squeezing to each other just to ride the bus. And two old people caught Jiyeon's attention.
"Ya ya ya, let's stand up," Jiyeon tapped Kai's shoulders and gestured him to stand up. "Let grandfather and grandmother seat here instead."
"Bo-ya?" Kai complained, but he's already defeated when she looked into Jiyeon's eyes—who was glaring at him. "Arasseo arasseo."
"Harabeoji, Halmoni,(grandpa, grandma) you can take our seats," Jiyeon politely smiled at slightly bowed at them. Jiyeon pushed Kai forward so the elderly can take their seats.
"Oh, that's too kind of you, kumapsumida," the old lady also bowed at Jiyeon and Kai. And the elderly seat on the chair. "You two would be a great couple, hohoho," the old lady joked and laughed.
"A-Aniyo (No) We're not a couple, right?" Jiyeon looked at Kai for confirmation, but Kai smirked. And Jiyeon has a bad feeling about this.
"Yet, halmoni," Kai smiled happily at the old lady.
"Omo... hohoho," the old lady smacked his husband's shoulders lightly.
"Ya!" Jiyeon glared at Kai, and she also smacked Kai's shoulders lightly.
The bus driver abruptly started driving, and Jiyeon was not holding into something and lost her balance.
"Ya, be careful," Kai catched Jiyeon's back, and his other hand was holding into the post beside him. "Here, hold this." Kai grabbed Jiyeon's hand and placed it into the handle. While Kai was doing this, Jiyeon was just staring at Kai's face structure on her left. She can feel his breath passing through her cheeks.
Kai was standing behind Jiyeon. Their bodies are really squeezing to each other because the bus is full. Kai's hand was next to Jiyeon's. And they both were staring at the window. Every time the bus stopped, Kai's hands are there to block Jiyeon from falling.
'Why suddenly he's being so nice?' Jiyeon thought.
Finally, they arrive at the bookstore. But someone tapped her shoulders when they get out from the bus. There's a girl who's handing her a folded piece of paper. Then she thought, 'Finally, someone's giving me one. What could this be?'
But the girl said, "Can you give this to oppa that you're with?"
Jiyeon rounded her eyes in surprise, and smiled half-heartedly as a response.
She turned her back from her and started walking with Kai. She muttered, "What the hell is this?" She opened the folded paper and she saw: '010********* Call me, oppa~ <3 XOXO'. Jiyeon rounded abruptly rounded her eyes in disgust, and said to Kai, "Ya~ is this what you're getting from those girls?"
He took something at his pocket and he showed to Jiyeon the folded papers he received from the girls earlier. "You want it? You can have it."
"No thanks, it's all yours," Jiyeon declines and she also gave Kai the piece of paper that the girl gave to her.
"That's why I hate riding buses," he muttered, but he made sure that Jiyeon can hear it.
Jiyeon grinned and blocked Kai, "I KNEW IT!" She points at Kai.
"Knew what?"
"You hate riding buses," Jiyeon gave him a triumphant smile as she crossed her hands. And they started walking again towards the bookstore.
The automated sliding door opens the door for them and they both took one basket for each of them. Jiyeon took her list-to-buy on her pocket. And she ripped it into half. "To make things faster, you take this," Jiyeon handed over the 1st half of the list, and continued, "and I'll take t—"
"But I don't want to take things faster," he said with a witty smile, and added, "I want to take things slower."
Insert overdose lyrics.
Both of them looked into Kai's pocket. Kai grabbed his phone and answer the phone. "Yoboseyo?"
"Kai, this is Suho, you should be done before 1 pm."
"MO? [What?]" Kai blurted out.
"Yes, we need those things n—," Suho replied, but Kai ended the call.
"Jiyeon-a, what time is it?" After Kai's question, Jiyeon immediately looked into her wrist watch.
"It's almost 11 am," she replied.
"Yeah, I think we should take faster route," Kai immediately snatched the other half of the list on Jiyeon's hand. And he ran immediately to the things he should buy.
But before he could ran away, Jiyeon pulled his blazer and asked, "Who called? What does he say?"
"Suho said we should be done before 1 pm," and he ran away to a certain direction.
"Mo?! There are so many things to buy!" And Jiyeon panicked, and also ran immediately to the other direction.
The two finished their shopping in an hour.
"183, 503.67 won," the cashier said. Jiyeon dropped her jaw in awe.
"Ya~ give the card," Kai said.
"Oh-oh. T-that's right," She carelessly slips the card from her wallet and hand it over to the cashier. And the cashier returned it back once she slide it. "Thank you," Jiyeon said and bowed.
Since they bought too many things, they put their items on a cart.
"Where should we go now?" Kai asked Jiyeon as they were wandering around the streets of Myeongdong.
"Of course, we're going back to the school."
"It's too early, it's only 12:04, let's eat first. I'm starving." He just pushed the cart towards a Korean restaurant. Since she was also hungry, she followed Kai.
"What do you want to order?" Kai asked Jiyeon when she finally seats on her chair.
She sighed out of exhaustion, "Anything that's delicious. I'm so tired."
Kai raised his arms to call the waitress, and when the waiter was in front of them, he ordered, "Ddeokbokki, makchang, 2 curry ramyeon and 2 special rice. And also 2 cola." The waitress repeated Kai's order and went into the kitchen.
"Wow that's a lot," Jiyeon stated, but Kai just ignored her statement.
"Ya, aren't they from the twin Seoul Academy?"
"Where, where—Ooh that's right. Waa~ they're so good looking."
"I heard people there are rich and beautiful."
"And smart, of course."
Two girls in the corner recognizes Jiyeon and Kai's uniform and they started to talk about them.
"I didn't know our schools was that popular," Jiyeon whispered, leaning closer to Kai.
"Of course," he coolly said. "Anyway, what does your parents do?"
"Um... my dad is the vice-president of one of the biggest calling center here in South Korea. And my mom was a professor at K university—top 1 university in South Korea. But she resigned, so she's now a housewife who also happens to be an online blogger. We own an online shop. How about you?"
"Waa... I thought you're not that rich."
"Booo? Why'd you say that?" Jiyeon widened her eye with Kai's inconsiderate conclusion.
"Well, you like to ride buses," he started to count Jiyeon's sign of mediocrity, "You were surprised with the bill earlier, and now, you were also surprised that I ordered a lot. So I thought, you were a poor scholar in SWA." Exactly, the raw makchang and other side dishes arrived.
"Waa~" Kai said in amusement to the makchang (large intestines). "Neomu yepeuda (So pretty)." He took the tongs and grilled it on the grille.
"Ya! I'm not done with you!" Jiyeon spank Kai with a spoon on his head.
"Ya! What was that?" Kai stopped from grilling the makchang and listened to Jiyeon.
"Aigoo...These kids today, they read too much books!" Jiyeon massage her nape out of stressfulness. "First of all," she points her spoon to Kai and added, "I'm not going to walk out from this restaurant just because you offended me. I'll stay because of the food, okay? Second, I'm not smart. Period. And third, don't conclude yet just because you saw it. Ya Kim Jong In! Can't you be more practical? We're on a crisis, for Pete's sake! We don't just spend money just because we want to. Aigoo... I grew up from a rich family, but we live in a simple way, okay?"
"Wow," Kai mouthed. He was amazed by Jiyeon's maturity. Yes, he thought she was going to walk out because he thinks he offended her. Kai was looking down, silent, like a kid who got punished by his parents. He was like this: ._. He was pretty guilty.
Jiyeon glared at Kai and she snatched the tongs from his grip. She grilled the rest of the makchang. She cut the long makchang with a pair of scissors into smaller pieces so it would be cook faster. Jiyeon looked at Kai who was still silent. She's starting to be guilty by her actions—shouting and lecturing him. But then, she thought, 'He deserves it. He should be lectured more.'
She rolled her eyes. And she took a sip of her soup.
Kai's chest was being shattered into pieces by guilt. He wanted to say sorry but he couldn't. His pride wouldn't let him. But he saw Jiyeon rolled her eyes, making his chest to crush once more.
'Why am I so reckless?' he thought. 'I shouldn't have said that.'
He gulped his saliva and breathe deeply, "I'm sorry," he said in a low voice.
Jiyeon—who was eating the ddeokbokki—was ceased with chopsticks on her mouth, and her cheekbones were showing up—a sign of laughter. She crinkled her left eye, and looked into Kai, "What did you say?"
"I'm not going to say it anymore," he said like a spoiled brat. He grabbed his chopsticks and was about to take some ddeokboki if Jiyeon didn't snatched it away from it.
"I'll give this to you, if you say it once more," Jiyeon was obviously teasing Kai.
"Yaaaaaa~" Kai reached out for the bowl but it was too far away from his reach. "Tsk. CHU-SANG-HAE-YO, JIYEON-SSI."
"Aigoo... when can you be sincere?" Jiyeon gave up, and she gave the bowl back to Kai. Kai just cutely beamed on her. Bringing the old Kai back.
Jiyeon took a taste check of the makchang if it's already cooked. And yes, it was already cooked.
"Wow, this is delicious!" Kai said as he took another bite of makchang (large intestine).
"This is your first time eating this?" Jiyeon asked.
"Yup."
"Then, why did you ordered this?" Jiyeon asked out of curiosity.
"Everyone's eating it," he turned his head all over the room, Jiyeon followed.
Finally, the rice was serve. It was on a small lunch box. Jiyeon was about to open it, but Kai suddenly speak.
"Ya~ It's almost 1pm, let's go!" Kai blurted out. "Waiter! Bill!" He shouted all over the room.
"B-but, the makchang is not yet finished," Jiyeon pouts in front of the makchang.
Immediately, the waiter came to their table with the bill and Kai grabbed Jiyeon's wallet from her bag, and gave Suho's credit card.
"Y-Ya! Aren't you being too abusive with Suho's card?!" Jiyeon blurted out and snatched her . "I'm going to pay for our lunch." Instead of giving a card, Jiyeon gave cash. She gave the exact amount of money to the waiter.
"Kaja!" Kai took a grasp on Jiyeon's arm but Jiyeon resists.
"I'm going to finish this!"
"No, just bring the lunchbox!"
"Oh, that's right!" Jiyeon immediately put the remaining makchang to her lunchbox. And she just ate the last one.
"Let's take the bus!" Unexpectedly, Kai said that.
"Woah~ No we're not! We're going to take the taxi. There's too much to bring. Taxi!" She raised her hands when she saw the taxi.
"Seoul Men's Academy, ahjusshi!" They entered the taxi when they finally loaded their things on the taxi's compartment.
"Why are we again running late?" Jiyeon asked Kai while she was sniffing her lunchbox.
"Because Hyung (Suho) said that we should be back before 1 pm."
"I mean, can't we be late? I mean, we're not doing something, are we?" Jiyeon shook her lunchbox.
"Yeah~ But..." Kai looked at Jiyeon, pretty unsure. "Are you going to eat that?" Jiyeon nods her head like a puppy. "Then, eat it!"
"Of course I'm going to eat it! Carry on," she gestured towards Kai as she slowly open the lid of her lunchbox.
"Because they need the things we bought, and if we're late, they're going to throw us unpleasant words, got it?"
"Oh sure," Jiyeon said, full mouthed.
They both ate their lunchboxes in the taxi, and when they finally arrived at the academy. They ride the golf cart that was parking on the parking lot. Those golf carts were really made for the students to make use of it.
"Waa~ you bought all of them?" Jiyeon nods when she gave the receipt from their shopping. "Good job, thanks. Did you use my card to grab yourselves a lunch?" Jiyeon looked at Kai, confused. And Kai was just lazily looking at Suho. "You didn't?" Suho concluded.
"W-we did. But I pay for it," Jiyeon said, unsurely. And she gave back the card to Suho.
"Oh~ you should've use my card. I won't mind."
Jiyeon, once again, looked at Kai. And Kai just lazily shrugged and said, "I told you so."
Then, Jiyeon felt slightly devastated that she wasted her money. She loves free stuffs. But she self-reflected, "Oh, that's fine. It was the worth waste of money, since we had a delicious lunch."
"oh, geurae? [Is that so?] So let's go back to work?"
And both Jiyeon and Kai joined the others and helped them work.
THE NOTE: to my 'deer' fellow Filipino readers (if there is/are), I hope you are all fine after Typhoon Glenda hit our country. And I'm very thankful to God that most of our families are safe. And there were less calamities and deaths compared to Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan. Stay Safe, everyone. Be attentive
PEACE, love and RESPECT
-OtakuGurL-