I don't wanna talk to you anymore,
and all these little games
You can call me by the name I gave you
Yesterday
Riley
meow
My eyes widen. Oh no, please tell me I didn't forget to lock the door, or worse a teacher finding you. I rush around the corner but to my relief it was a student, to my surprise though, that student was Jake Ji. My brows scrunch in confusion. How did he find Peace?
The ginger was kneeling down petting the cat and Peace seemed to like him. Should I just turn around and wait till he leaves? What if he decides to take him?
I stay back and hide behind the corner. I promised Peace I'd take him home with me though...I'll just wait then, I sigh.
"You can come out Riley, I know you're there" he chuckles. I gasp and my hand immediately covers my mouth. My eyes widen "N-no... not me" my voice comes out shaky as I try to disguise it. What if he thinks I followed him here and gets the wrong idea. What if he thinks I'm like a stalker or something? Nobody else besides the gym teachers come over here.
I stood against the wall still thinking of an excuse. I hear him get up from the floor. I rack my brain for an excuse only for it to hit me.
Just tell him it's your cat....duhh
I look at the ground and hit my palm against my forehead. Right. I look up and Jake stood in front of me. My breathe hitched in my throat when I noticed the close proximity between us. Jake tilts his head to the side confused as to what I was doing. I open my mouth but nothing comes out.
He was carrying Peace and he was in the middle of us two. He claws at me wanting to be in my arms.
Guess he does want to go home with me. It warmed my heart. I carefully grab peace out of Jakes arms. My face felt hot as I was still backed up against the wall. Oh god, this is embarrassing.
"Is he yours?" He asks curiously. Peace nudges his head against my cheek. "Yeah...I, um, I'm taking him home." I tell him. I look back at the storage room and back at Jake.
"Please don't tell anyone" I plead. I didn't want to get in trouble. I wanted to avoid getting in any trouble so that I wouldn't cause mom any problems. He smiles at "Don't worry. I won't" his voice sincere.
"Okay, thank you" I give him a small smile and turn on my heels and start to walk away. It was the end of the school day and today I was taking Peace home.
It wasn't until I walked up to the front gates of the school did I notice that Jake was following me. My brows scrunch up once again, it seems like whenever I'm around him I'm confused. I stop and he stops. He says nothing until he realizes what he was doing "Oh! Sorry, I wanted to tell you that I know a good pet shop if you want to get..." he looks at the kitten in my arms
"Peace" I state
"What?" He looks at me
"His name is peace" I smile
"Well if you want to get Peace some cat food I know a place, I can take you" He had this hopeful look in his eyes.
I ponder over his offer. I'm still relatively new to this whole area and I can't keep feeding peace human food, he might get a stomachache.
"Okay" I say and start to walk out of the gate without even knowing what way it is. He stood behind for a moment and then snapped out of it and rushed to me.
We're just going to get cat food right? It's not like we're 'hanging' out.
He grabbed my unused hand. I look at our intertwined hands and up at him "It's this way" he smiles and pulls me in the other direction.
Once we were in the right direction he still held onto my hand. I didn't have the heart to tell him that he could let go of my hand now, at least not until we were in front of the cat store. "Umm... JJ you can let go of me now" I tell him
His face turns pink "Oh yeah.." he scratches the back of his neck. Right next to the Pet shop I noticed a comic book store.
"Is that a comic book-"
"JJ?"
We look at each other in confusion
"You called me JJ?" He questions
I feel my face warm up again "Oh yeahh..." I let out a nervous chuckle "I'm sorry I won-"
"No, I like it!" He smiles
I bite my lip and nod, still a little embarrassed, I turn around quickly and walk into the store "You know you have a habit of walking away so abruptly" he comments and I laugh.
Third POV
Outside of an arcade stood Ben Park, Alex Go, and Gerard Jin.
"You cheated! You can't throw a freaking kick dude!" Ben exclaims
"Well, I don't recall you saying anything about that" Gerard points out
"It's a flippin punching machine, you idiot! punch, P-U-N-C-H" Ben fumes as he spells it out.
"Come on man, just admit you lost."
Before Ben could go on another rampage he notices Alex walking away from the arcade without so much as a notice. He and Gerard notice, and look at one another before following him to the window of a pet shop. Ben looks inside at what had caught Alex's attention "Oh hey! Is that Ri-" Alex quickly pulls Ben down before Riley noticed it was them. Riley shrugs and continues to look at some cat toys.
"Who was it?" Gerard asks and Ben giggles like a schoolgirl "It's Alex's crush, right GoGo?" Ben nudges Alex's ribs and Alex pushes him.
Alex had seen her walk around the store with a cat in her arms and he didn't know who looked more adorable the girl or the cat. He wouldn't admit it but he had a crush on the dark haired brunette. "I-I don't have a crush on her!" Alex protests as Gerard and Ben snicker seeing him blush. He huffs and gets back up walking away "Oh come on GoGo!" They get up and follow Alex and proceed to tease him the rest of the way.
Riley finished shopping for all the supplies peace needed. She and Jake walked out of the store and stood in front of pet shop "Do you maybe want to go to the comic store with me, please" he pouts
"Uhm, I don't think they'll allow pets in there-" she began but Jake stated that he new the manager and that it wouldn't be a problem. Riley looked at his puppy eyes and felt inclined to say yes so that's what she said. "Okay but not too long I have some things to do today" Jake felt this feeling of joy in his stomach, he wondered why she was able to make him feel this way, whatever is was he liked the feeling.
He was surprised when the dark haired brunette had accepted his offer after rejecting him the previous day. He felt special that he was hanging out with Riley outside of school. She never hung out with anyone from school. He had asked around school and though a lot of people seemed to know her they never met her after school hours.
Jake remembered the day he saw Riley for the first time. He had waken up a little later than usual and decided to take public transportation. Riley just so happened to take the bus that day as well.
While waiting Jake saw this short haired brunette walking up to the bus stop as well. She looked lost in her in own little world. She sat down next to him. To Jake she appeared to have the weight of world on her shoulders.
Jake continued to stare at her. She was really pretty, pretty? No she looked beautiful, she looked like an angel. A sad angel. No one else would've noticed but Jake did, she had sad eyes. Jake was curious as to why.
He noticed that she was wearing Daehyeon uniform. She went to his school? He's never noticed her before but then again he only ever really hung out with the his three friends.
She played with the necklace around her neck. It was a golden heart locket and he grew even more curious.
Jake was about to speak to her when she got up and ran onto the street, confused Jake got up quickly to pull her back on the sidewalk but he never got the chance because she was already on the road. The car beeped loudly before stopping right in front of Riley.
Jakes heart was beating so fast he thought that it could burst out any minute. Riley was on the ground, unharmed. He let out a breath of relief that this stranger was okay. It took him another second to process what had just happened. Why? Why did she run out onto the street and risk her life?
She got up and that's when he noticed the cat in her arms. A cat? She risked her life for a cat? Jake stood there speechless. Jake couldn't decide whether what she did was heroic or stupid. Maybe both.
The driver got out of the car and saw what he was about to hit. He thanked Riley seeing as he also owned a cat and that he would give his life for him. Then proceeded to scold her for running onto a busy road and risking getting hurt. Riley went along and apologized before they both made their separate ways.
From then on he would admire Riley from afar in school. She would usually walk the hallways alone and eat alone. At first Jake thought she didn't have any friend or maybe someone was giving her a hard time. That's was soon proven wrong when he saw her walking with a group of girls and chatting with people in the cafeteria. Maybe she just preferred to be alone?
Either way Jake wanted to be her friend
But as she sat there with peace curled up on her lap and a comic book in her hand "what are you reading JJ?" she asks innocently. His heart skips a beat.
Maybe he couldn't only just be her friend.
Riley
Jake handed me my bags and I thanked him. "I had fun today" he says and I smile at him.
"We should do this again sometime" he suggests. Silence fell over us. I stopped and he stops.
"Jake, w-what is it that you want from me? " I begin. I couldn't shake off this paranoia.
"Why are you being so nice? Do you want something?" It sounded like I was accusing him of having an ulterior motive but I couldn't help but ask.
Friendly but never friends
Was easy when people never tried more than a simple offer to go out, I could turn them down with an excuse and they wouldn't push any further but JJ was persistent. It confused me.
He didn't take offense. It was was like he expected it. "What wrong with wanting to get to know you?" His tone was curious
Get to know me?
I think everyone's life would've been fine if you hadn't shown up
"I don't think that's a good idea" I say in a low voice
"Why? I want to be your friend Riley" he whispered getting closer to me.
The people you seem to care about most are the ones that end up getting hurt
I sigh "We can't be friends, Jake" I tell him and the expression on his face was sad. I look at the floor and feel guilty for upsetting him.
"Why?" He asks, I look up, his eyebrows furrowed, not understanding.
"I don't do friends" I make it clear before he could get his hopes up.
I should've declined his offer. We could've avoided this conversation had I just continued to pay no mind to him. We would've just continued to be schoolmates, nothing more, nothing less.
Still, it's better to cut things off here before we got to really know each other. It makes it easier to let go. Today would just be a shared memory between two strangers.
I look at his disheartened state. I wanted to hold his hand as a way of comforting him or say something to make him smile because he does has a beautiful smile and I hated that I made it disappear.
I refrained from doing so, it wouldn't be fair. Not after what I said. So I just slowly walked away from him. Leaving him alone in front of the comic book store.
It had been a while since I got home and Peace was excitedly exploring his new home. I served him his food in his newly bought bowl along with water. I changed into more comfortable clothes and grab my keys. "I'll be back, Peace" I say and lock the door. It was dark out and it was chilly but it was nice. I decided to take a walk out and pass by the grocery store to buy some 'real' food as my mom would call it -also to clear my mind about the situation between JJ and I.
My mind kept coming back to it.
Why do you always ruin everything?
I thought as I kicked the pebble from the sidewalk to the grass and sighed, my breath was foggy and I shivered. My eyes wander to the bus stop a few meters away from me. I started to reconsider my decision to walk when the bus arrived.
I made the wise decision of taking the bus to not freeze my hands and feet off. I sat down, looking out the window and back to the front. My eyes widen when I got a glimpse of something or rather someone. I turn my head back to the window but there was nothing.
No silver haired boy in sight.
I rub my forehead. Am I starting to hallucinate now? Another thing to add to the list, I mentally think and prevent myself from laughing at my own issues so I wouldn't appear crazy to the people around me. Silver, huh? Nope that dude is long gone. I frown. I wonder how he's been or what he's doing now?
School most likely.
You can't escape school. Well at least tomorrow's Friday, that's a relief.
I take the elevator to the second floor and reach my door. I set my heavy bags down sighing and opened the locked door. Immediately I'm greeted by Peace. I smile down at him and began putting the food away.
Afterwards I pick up Peace and take him in the bathroom. I turn the water on and opened up the shampoo I bought at the pet store. Surprisingly Peace enjoyed being in the water. A little startled at first but overall he enjoyed his bath. I pick him up and dried him. He ran a long when done. Jumping on my bed I chuckle and reach for my phone.
Mom
Since you aren't responding to me lately I'm going to your place to check up on you. I'll be there at three.
My eyes widen when I realized I'd forgotten to reply to her. I sigh and throw my phone on the bed. I go to bed with peace curling beside me who fell fast asleep. I laid there till, one, two, three, four in the morning and I still couldn't sleep. I felt tired. Exhausted. But still I could not sleep.
Here we go again.
Another restless and sleepless night.
___________________
AN
hi
the season finale was... gahhhh can't wait for the next one!
Gray solving Donald's problem... *freaks out*
anyways hope you guys like it!
k bye <3
Published: January 18, 2021