"Sunbae, can I talk to you?"
So Yi Jeong looked up from where he was sitting. He had just taken Ga Eul home because she had work the next day, and he was currently lounging on one of the couches in the F4 lounge. The rest of the F4 were playing pool by the very pool table he was teaching Ga Eul how to play a while ago. God, he was thinking about her already.
"Geum Jan Di, what is it?" Jan Di sat next to the Casanova. She really didn't know how she would start this conversation. He and her best friend had just revealed their relationship to them a while ago and though she was slightly hurt that Ga Eul didn't call her the instant she agreed to be his girlfriend, that wasn't the first thing that was bothering her. No, there was a bigger thing to deal with.
"You…and Ga Eul, how did that really happen?" she inquired. She really was curious and because Ga Eul didn't stick around long enough for her to ask, she decided to just ask Yi Jeong. But that still wasn't the big concern.
"Well, like she said, Jan Di, we really just did…happen." Like Ga Eul a while ago, he, too, didn't have words to explain the development of their relationship. It was all so sudden, and yet to gradual. It was if there was always something there, and yet it was all new. Crazy shit, right?
"That doesn't make sense, sunbae. How can two people just happen?" Yi Jeong shrugs. He really had no idea, but they did, and it did happen.
"Well, okay fine, but I'll find out eventually. Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about…" Jan Di never in a million years thought she'd have this kind of conversation with Yi Jeong. Sure, she figured that after G Eul's disastrous relationship with Soo Pyo, she'd have to have a serious talk with her next boyfriend, for Ga Eul's sake. But never did she imagine it would be So Yi Jeong. Never.
"You know, if you and Ga Eul didn't seem so happy a while ago, I would've talked to you sooner. No, I would have spin kicked you." Yi Jeong had to laugh at Jan Di's protectiveness. This was something the two friends had in common, their great urge to lash out (Ga Eul) or beat up (Jan Di) anyone who hurt, or intended to hurt, their best friend. In a way, Chu Ga Eul and Geum Jan Di's friendship resembled that of the F4's, and Yi Jeong had to smile at that.
"Well, I'm glad you didn't."
"You should be. Anyway, this thing you and Ga Eul have…be honest with me, sunbae, are you serious about her?" The question caught Yi Jeong off guard. He should have expected this from Jan Di, but now that the question was right in his face, he didn't know what to say. Knowing Geum Jan Di, the safe answer would be yes. But was he serious about her? He admits, he has been feeling something out of the ordinary for Ga Eul but the whole relationship thing happened so fast that he didn't have time to even consider this. What madeGa Eul different, really? Was it the way she dressed, much more conservative than his other girls. Or was it the way she called him 'sunbae'? Or maybe it was that gleam in her eyes that she gets when she's excited, and that fire when she's angry? Maybe it was the way his pulse races whenever she's in the same room as him. Yi Jeong bets it was the latter.
"You're taking too long to answer, sunbae. I'm on the verge of actually doing the spinning kick I wanted to do a while ago." That snapped Yi Jeong out of his thoughts. So, what was it? Was he serious about her?
"I'm not going to her, Jan Di. You can trust me on that." he answered because he knows he won't, he didn't have it in him to. If he was serious or not, he still didn't know. Casanovas didn't take overnight to change, now, did they? But he knew for sure Ga Eul wasn't like the others, and there was no way he'd break her heart.
"Why should I trust you, sunbae?" It wasn't an accusation; it was simply a question that needed to be answered. Why? Yi Jeong had to think again. The obvious reason would be because he didn't want Jan Di to kill him but that wasn't it. No, not really. He remembers the night they fought in his studio, Ga Eul's eyes filled with tears at his words. He never wanted to see that image again, especially not because of him. He didn't want her crying, ever.
"Geum Jan Di, I'm being totally out of character by saying this but…Ga Eul's not like any other girl. I'm not with her just for the fun of it. She's different…a good different." Yi Jeong doesn't know if he's convinced Jan Di. But if he did, and he breaks Jan Di's and Ga Eul's trust in the future, he'd be volunteering his own ass for kicking, for sure.
Jan Di wanted to smile at Yi Jeong's sincerity. Really, she did. She could feel that he was being honest and this thing with Ga Eul really was different for him but she couldn't help but think about one small problem, a problem that Ga Eul seemed to forget for a while. It was all just a bet, at least it was all supposed to be, and it looks like Jae Kyung unni had won.
--
Ga Eul had just finished her class and she was getting ready to leave the school when a hand covered her eyes.
"Yah!" she tried to struggle out of the stranger's hold. Oh my goodness, was she getting kidnapped? No, wait; she wasn't a kid anymore so technically it wasn't a kidnap. But this has to be something. Her heart was beating fast now. What the hell?
"Guess who." The stranger whispered in her ear. Ga Eul let herself relax at the familiar voice. She couldn't help but smile, too.
"Sunbae!" He removed his hand and she turned to him. He was all smiles before she started hitting him.
"Aish! What is it with you and hitting?" Yi Jeong tried to block her hands and her huge bag by with his hands. It was no use as Ga Eul hit him everywhere she could reach.
"You scared me!" she finally stopped. She frowned at him as he laughed.
"Yah, what are you laughing at?" she pouted. Yi Jeong immediately stopped as recognized that adorable power she had on him.
"No, no, no, don't get pissed. You're just really cute when you're angry." Ga Eul turned a deep shade of red at his playful words. Damn that voice!
"What are you doing here, anyway?" she asked, changing the topic. It wasn't normal for him to meet her after class. Usually, they just met up at his studio.
"What's wrong with picking up my girlfriend?" he asked with a question of his own. Ga Eul felt her breath hitch and her heart stop beating. It was that word again, that word she couldn't stop thinking about ever since he said it yesterday in front of their friends. Yi Jeong sensed her shock.
"That is what you are, right?" Ga Eul couldn't help but melt inside at the uncertainty of his voice. It was so rare to hear the Casanova this way.
"As long as I'm the only one." She told him, seriously. She has been thinking about this last night too, how everything happened so fast. Knowing Jan Di, she probably already gave him a 'talk' the moment he came back from driving her home but she still has yet to talk to Jan Di.
"You are, Ga Eul yang." He assured her. He had a hunch that the all the Casanovas of the world were ashamed of him now, considering of the number of times he's been mushy just for the past two days.
Ga Eul just nodded at him. He took her hand and led her to his car.
"Where are we going?"
"Just out to eat, Ga Eul yang." He told her, opening the passenger's door for her. She slid in and soon he was in the driver's seat too. The car that Ga Eul thought was once too small felt good to her now, like something felt right about her being there.
--
Yi Jeong took her out to a commoner's restaurant that he knew Ga Eul loved. This was where they ate after they got out of the museum after being stuck for a night. It was very different for them then, but still somewhat the same as now. He and Ga Eul's relationship were just full of contradictions, wasn't it?
"Oh!" Ga Eul almost spit out her drink as she remembered she had good news for him. Yi Jeong laughed.
"I got the promotion!" she exclaimed. Yi Jeong broke out into a huge smile.
"That's great. Looks like my patience with you paid off, huh?" he teased. He couldn't help but wonder if they were going to being less of each other now, but then he remembered they were together already so he didn't need an excuse to see her.
"Your patience? I was such a good student. You were the one who needed putting up with." Ga Eul stuck her tongue at him. He couldn't help but smile at her childishness. He enjoyed it when she was like this, when they were like this. It was almost as if there was no one else in the world but them. Yeah, he liked that feeling.
"You're really going to eat all that?" he gestured to her double sized burger, fries and sundae. It always amazed him how Ga Eul could eat as much as she can. For such a small girl, she sure had an appetite.
"Yah, sunbae!" she threw a scrunched up paper napkin at him and he ducked causing it to hit the back of the head of a snotty looking woman sitting behind Yi Jeong. The woman looked back and Ga Eul flushed in embarrassment. She bowed her head in apology, too embarrassed to say anything. The woman turned her head again and got up form her seat but not before looking at her and rolling her eyes. Yi Jeong got up from his ducking position, laughing so much he had his hand to his stomach. Ga Eul reached out top smack him.
"I can't believe you, sunbae! That was so…" Yi Jeong couldn't stop his laughter. Ga Eul looked like him she could kill him.
"You made me look so stupid. Yah, stop laughing…" it wasn't long before she started laughing too. The situation was funny and Yi Jeong's laugh was quite contagious. They laughed together like a bunch of idiots in a mental hospital. They enjoyed this moment until Yi Jeong felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.
"Hello?" there was still traces of laughter on his voice but all of those immediately disappeared as he listened to what was being said on the other line. Ga Eul had stopped laughing too, noticing his serious state.
"I see." He says and Ga Eul goes back to eating, not wanting to be rude by listening in to his conversation. Of course she was listening, but she didn't want it to be obvious.
"Well, it's always like that right? Tell her I'm not doing it." And then he hung up. Ga Eul had just finished her food.
"Are you finished?" Ga Eul nods. He leaves a huge bill at their table and pulls Ga Eul out of the restaurant.
They enter his car but he doesn't start the engine. Ga Eul looks at him, worriedly. Who was that on the phone? What could he have possibly said to make him this angry? She doesn't remember ever seeing him this mad before. He had that burning look in his eyes, there was such intensity there that Ga Eul almost couldn't recognize him anymore. She jumps as Yi Jeong slams his fist to the wheel.
"S-sunbae…what happened? Who was that?" She couldn't not ask him this.
"That was my mom's assistant…" he answers shortly. Ga Eul could sense that this isn't the first time he was faced with whatever this was.
"What did he want?" Ga Eul didn't care anymore if she was being nosy. There was something about his anger, his hidden sadness that she wanted to just to get to know. She wanted him to tell her, she wanted to help. Maybe she couldn't, she most probably couldn't, but she could just be there for him, right? She just didn't want him to feel alone.
"My mother tried to kill herself." Nothing could have prepared Ga Eul for that. She tried to hide her shock but it was impossible.
"You don't need to be surprised. This isn't anything new." That was even mind blowing. His mom tried to kill herself…usually? What was wrong? Yi Jeong could sense her discomfort. He turned to her.
"I'm sorry for sharing that with you, you didn't need to know that. I should take you home…" he entered the keys into the ignition and was about to start the engine when Ga Eul put her hand to his, stopping him.
"You don't have to deal with this, whatever this is, alone, sunbae." Yi Jeong turned to Ga Eul and he could see that she meant what she said. He wonders why she cares so much, why she thought he was worth the trouble. And then she takes his hand in hers, holds it with both of her own.
"I'm here." With that, Yi Jeong realizes what makes Ga Eul special, what makes her different from everyone else. She was real, probably the realest thing he had ever held in a long time.
Somehow, that made everything else less important.