I Gotta Say:
Here's a super long chapter! XD I hope you all like it cuz I do!
Tenth, Rhythm
Seung Bum dropped Ga Eul off in front of her house. They were still in the car, silence filling the air.
"I heard you met my mom," Ga Eul looked at him and poked his shoulder. "She said you were so innocent."
He chuckled, showing his Yi Jung-like dimple.
"Wow, well that must've left a great impression." he leaned his head on the head rest and stared at the roof of his car.
"Apparently, it did. She wants you to have dinner with us…would you like to join us?" Ga Eul quietly asked. He stared at her, shocked. "If you don't mind, I mean." Ga Eul added.
"I don't mind at all! I'd be more than happy to have dinner with your family." Silence paid another visit.
"Um…I'm still thinking about your…what you said today. I'm definitely considering it. I mean... you eating dinner with my family was my parent's idea...so I hope you don't get lead on or anything." She made sure he didn't get the wrong idea with the family dinner and everything.
'Yi Jung..." her heart cried out.
"Alright. I won't rush you. Sweet dreams, Ga Eul." Seung Bum got out of his car and opened her door for her. She bid him good night and entered the house.
"I'm home! I'm really tired so I'll go straight to bed. Love you!" Ga Eul said loud enough for her parents to her.
"We love you too, sweetie!" her parents shouted back.
Ga Eul entered her room and changed into her pajamas. For just that night she wanted a clear mind; no thinking, no trying to figure things out. She tried searching the internet, downloading new music, she even tried watching her favorite YouTube channel, but nothing worked.
"Ugh!" she grumbled and lied down on her bed. She twisted around until she saw a familiar paper bag. 'This...' she thought as she reached for the paper bag. "These are the chocolates I gave Yi Jung on Valentine's Day."
'An act is an act, Ga Eul-yang. I'll keep these chocolates until you find your soul mate." She remembered that day…and the other day that broke the tiny fragments of her heart once more.
"I don't think I can hold on to these chocolates anymore. My keeping them just got you away from finding your true soul mate. You should have them back and give them to the guy who's right for you… someone who's your soul mate… not…not your magnet."
Her eyes started welling up with tears as she remembered that painful evening, which was followed by Yi Jung introducing Seung Bum.
'He's a great guy…' she thought. 'Maybe I…'
A message was sent to her cellphone and it was ringing like crazy. But as Ga Eul opened it, she found out that it wasn't just any normal message; it was a video message.
"Hellooooo, Ga Eul!" Jan Di and the F4 greeted.
"We hope your mother's doing better now!" the phone was then handed to Jun Pyo, only showing him on screen.
"Hey Ga Eul…well, I hope things aren't too troublesome over there. I'm sure your parents are very proud of you. Don't walk in the rain!" Jun Pyo waved and handed the phone to Ji Hoo.
"Ga Eul-ah! It's not that much fun here without you… I wish you didn't have to leave that soon. Now we can't tease Yi Jung that much." Ji Hoo pouts. "Anyway, make sure you eat well!" Ji Hoo smiled and Woo Bin snatched the phone.
"GA EUL, my horror movie buddy!" Woo Bin winked. "Ow, geez, don't kick my shin, man!" Woo Bin looked away from the cell phone camera and shouted at his right. Ga Eul could hear Jun Pyo and Ji Hoo laughing their heads off. A smile formed on her face. "Yi Jung sunbae…" she figured.
"Sorry for the interruption. Some people don't know how to grow up and some people can't take a joke. Don't worry Ga Eul-yang, I won't flood you with questions in this video. I just wanna tell you that you owe us your presence when we go on another outing, okay?" Woo Bin blew a flying kiss at her, which earned him another harder kick on the shin. "I better go before my legs get paralyzed."
"Ga Eul! Sorry I haven't had the chance to call yet…you know how things are when you're with these guys…no privacy." Jan Di said.
"Aish, that's not true! You get a lot of privacy!" Jun Pyo shouted in the background. Jan Di glared at him and argued, "Yeah? Like when? When I'm in the bathroom?!"
She looked back at the camera. "Sorry. Tell your parents I said hi! Don't have too much fun there without me, and don't even think of working in the porridge shop by yourself either! Take care, love you!" Jan Di waved.
The next thing Ga Eul noticed was that the phone was being moved away to a different place.
"Yah! You're not gonna shoot your part of the video in front of us?! That's so unfair, we wanna hear!!" Woo Bin and Jun Pyo teased in the background.
Now, in a more private place…
"Ga Eul-yang," Ga Eul smiled at the sound of Yi Jung's voice. The camera was now pointed at him and he was smiling too. "I heard you had crepe with Seung Bum… I'm not gonna lie to you and say 'I hope you had a great time', because the truth is, I hope he did something that wasn't attractive… something that would make you not wanna go out with him again." Ga Eul giggled. All she wanted to do was playfully punch Yi Jung's shoulder at that moment.
"I'm trying not to sound so mean when it comes to him… I really am trying. I don't wanna sound so selfish either, but I don't think I'm doing a very good job at that, aren't I?" he chuckled and shook his head. Ga Eul bit her lip and touched her cell phone screen.
"I miss you." She thought, while staring at Yi Jung on her cell phone.
"I miss you." Yi Jung said. There was nothing in his voice but pure truth and love. She smiled and a tear fell from her eye. She had no idea how much she missed him until then. Thoughts of him in the past few days made her stomach fly with butterflies. But seeing him, even if it was just in a video message, made her heart squeeze; both in happiness and the fact that she so badly wanted to be with him at the spot.
"I, uhh, well, the obstacle course was fun. Did you know we had to partner up? They said that it's always better to go through the course with a partner in case you get lost… that way you have a companion." He explained. He put his hand at the back of his head.
"I went by myself though. Well, one, because we were an odd number. Reason number two, because I insisted on going alone. Three, I was trying to picture you by my side." Ga Eul blushed right away and her heart felt like it just melted into gooey stuff.
"You know, in every single course, I imagined what you would have done. Every time I began an obstacle, I was thinking whether you'd be the one who would be brave, or whether I'd be the one who'd assure you everything would turn out fine. There were some times when I knew you'd take my hand because something creepy came out of nowhere, and after you did, I wouldn't get scared anymore because I knew I'd have you. I think that's the reason why I finished the obstacle course first and won. And I, um, I wanna thank you for that. What do you say? Dinner?" Yi Jung smiled, suddenly the room he was in felt hotter.
"We'll go wherever you want!" he insisted. "Even if you want to go to the Eiffel Tower just for a few hours, I'd arrange that." Ga Eul hugged her pillow, still smiling with a few giggles escaping her throat, happy tears flowing off her eyes.
"I miss hugging you… even if you didn't want me to…" Yi Jung continued.
"No…I always loved it when you hugged me." Ga Eul whispered. "I'll even agree that whispering could be our thing." She wiped her tears away, and when she closed her eyes, she felt Yi Jung's thumbs wiping her tears for her… just like he always did.
"I'll see you soon, okay? You'll be the first person I'll look for when we get back there." He made sure he said it as a promise. The sweetest smile formed on his lips. "Bye."
Ga Eul rewinded Yi Jung's part 5 more times; every time she watched it, she became happier and happier. At one point, she wondered if someone could ever reach the level of happiness she was at.
"I need him." She said to herself. And most importantly, she needed to tell him what she felt. After all those long, confusing days and nights where her thoughts took control of sleep, she wanted to be with him more than she's ever wanted to be. She needed him. And this time, he felt the same way; he not only needed her, he wanted her to be by his side more than she even knew.
2 hours after Ga Eul received the video message… (12:58am)
"Mmm… hello?" a sleepy Yi Jung grumbled. He was really tired and was finally able to sleep after impossible nights of thinking about Ga Eul with Seung Bum. He snuggled into his soft blanket a bit more.
"Hi. Did I wake you?" a soft, now worried voice asked. Yi Jung's eyes immediately flew open. He sat up, checked his phone to see if the voice he heard at the other end of the line was who he really thought it was.
"Ga Eul?"
She giggled. Even if Yi Jung was flying his way to heaven, a yawn still managed to escape him.
"Mmm, I did wake you. Sorry, but since you're awake now, there's no way I'm gonna hang up the phone." Yi Jung grinned at her statement. He missed her voice.
"I don't want you to hang up the phone. And besides, I might be sleepy, but this phone call could really make all the sleepiness disappear." He put his pillow on a standing position and leaned on it. "Hey, I'll call you back." And with that, he hung up.
"Wait, what?" Ga Eul asked, but he was already gone. "Well, that was unexpected…" she sadly thought.
A second later, her phone started ringing. She picked up her phone.
"A video call?" she never had one before, so she clicked 'answer'. Right after that, Yi Jung's face suddenly appeared on screen.
"Sorry I hung up like that…I just really wanted to see you." He explained.
"What?! You can see me?!" Ga Eul exclaimed. She was wearing her pajamas and her hair was in a messy ponytail. "Yah! You could've warned me first." She pouted.
Yi Jung laughed and pointed at himself, telling her to look at him. She hid her face in her pillow, leaving her eyes looking at her phone. She didn't want him to see her huge smile when she saw him at that state. He, like herself, was wearing dark blue pajamas and his hair was a mess. She bet that he didn't know how adorable he was with his hair all messy and standing up in different places.
"You're hair's so messy." She blurted out.
"Yeah, I know." He said as he reached to comb his hair with his hand.
"Don't!" she silently screamed. He stopped and looked at her, confused.
"Hm?"
Ga Eul blushed. "I like it when your hair's messy." He smiled and she kept on staring at him, not saying a word.
"Am I that attractive even in my crazy hair-do state?" he smirked. She stuck her tongue out at him.
"You look like you haven't slept in months! What have you been doing?" she asked. That reason, he couldn't tell her. "She'd just laugh at the truth! If I tell her that I wasn't able to sleep because of thinking about her with Seung Bum, then she'd think I was crazy." Yi Jung said to himself.
"I was working. Well, not exactly working…people from around the world kept calling me, trying to buy some of my artwork. They know the perfect time to call." He said as he rubbed his eye.
"Aww, sorry I called…I could tell that you were sleeping well." She apologized, biting her lip afterwards.
"You're an exception, you know." He poked his cell phone screen as if he was poking her. Even if it was by technology, Ga Eul could still feel his touch.
"So…is anything going on? Why'd you call?" he asked, curious to know why.
"Nothing much…"
"You called for no reason?" he asked again.
"Um, yeah…pretty much." She answered, a small blush forming on her cheeks.
"Ah, this is my favorite type of phone call; one with no reason."
"You're so weird!" she laughed and then pretended to throw her pillow at him. Yi Jung, on the other hand, pretended to shield himself.
"Am I?"
"Yeah."
Silence for a while.
"I couldn't sleep." She finally admitted.
"Mmm, really? Want me to fly back there and give you company?" he said in a half sincere, half flirty way. She rolled her eyes at him.
"You're already giving me company." And for some reason, Yi Jung misunderstood that.
"What? You mean Seung Bum???" he asked oh-so innocently. Ga Eul laughed at him.
"Nooooo. I mean you. Hello, video call? And the fact that you can see me and I can see you? What in the world have you been thinking about?" she lied down on her stomach and looked at him. "Don't pout at me!"
This time, it was his turn to laugh. He missed her even more now. For days, he hasn't seen her do all her Ga Eul stuff.
"You told me I was weird." He answered back.
"Hmph. When are you coming back?" she asked. "Please say tomorrow, please say tomorrow, please say tomorrow." She prayed in her head.
"Soon. Why? Have you seen the video message?" he asked, blushing with the memory of him telling her all those things.
"Mhm, I just saw it two hours ago."
"Ahh, so you can't wait for me to get back, huh?" he squinted his eyes at her and smiled.
"You're so annoying." She grunted. Here she was, calling him during midnight and he still had the guts to tease her.
"I know," he said soothingly. "You sleepy yet?" she shook her head and a yawn escaped her mouth. He chuckled.
"Fine, just a little bit." She said while she glared at him.
"Okay, so how about you lie down, make yourself comfortable, and we'll talk until you fall asleep." He insisted. They both lied down on their own beds and when Ga Eul was comfortable, she smiled at him.
"So what do we talk about?"
"Hmmm, well, you know what? I wrote a song." He said, kind of embarrassed, but proud at the same time since he never really was the songwriter type.
"Really? How is it?" Ga Eul asked, shocked that he did something like that. Her eyes were droopy though, but she didn't want to hang up just yet.
"It's pretty good. Ji Hoo made the melody, which is pretty much the best part of the song." He explained.
"Will I have the honor of hearing it?" she giggled. He thought about it for a while.
"Okay, I guess…if you really want to, I mean you do realize that I'm gonna be singing it." He said, trying to persuade her that he's not a good singer.
"You're singing?! Then let me hear it!! I'm curious…I've always wanted to know what your singing voice is like." She insisted.
"Alright then…just promise me you won't go deaf afterwards, okay?" he raised his eyebrow at her.
"I promise." She smiled reassuringly and he started singing.
(Song: I'm Going to Meet Her sung by Kim Bum himself. Author: If you guys haven't heard this song, then you're missing out! Kim Bum can sing wonderfully 3)
English lyrics:
within the crowd of people
i simply look and pass by
all i want is to find you
nobody else
didn't recognize my tears
welled up, on these eyes
i only want to find you
and hold you tight
when i miss you
i cant help but call your name
my love
wherever i may be
i'll be waiting for you
Chorus:
i am here calling out
your name again
coz i long for you
because you should know
that i love you
listen my love
i am going to see you again my love
coz you are the one
that taught me
a love that's worth , my all
II:
memories rush into my mind
passin by the street lamp
where your first words sent
a shining light into my heart
everything you do catches my eyes
and mesmerize me
these are my precious memories
with you...
if i confess that i've
fallen deep in love w/ you
will you feel unsure
im left here wondrin'
(repeat chorus)
bridge:
with only you....
doesnt matter if its long
even if i am reborn
i will only love you
forever
Chorus 2:
i will love you more than anyone
your in my heart
because i love you
this heart is for you
oh my love
i am going right now to see you
and bring...........
a promise of love
forever
please listen to me now
i love you that's forever
Forever i will stay....
forever i will stay....
ohhh oooh.
Yi Jung sang to her with his eyes closed. When he finished, he opened his eyes and found a sleeping Ga Eul. She was smiling. Even in her sleep and messy hair, she still looked sweet. He smiled at the sight.
"Either the song was too boring, too hard to listen to, or she just fell asleep because it was soothing." He said, trying to figure out the reason why she slept. He let it go a few seconds later. He did write this song for her and the lyrics won't sink in when she's really sleepy. What happened was probably for the best.
"I'll sing it to her properly when the time comes." Yi Jung decided. He looked at his cell phone again, watching Ga Eul sleep. "Good night, Ga Eul." he whispered and pecked his screen, imagining he was giving her a good night kiss on the forehead. He left his phone on and didn't stop the video call. Every once in a while he'd take a peek at his phone to see if she was still sound asleep. Slowly, his eyes gave in and sleep overtook him. It was the most relaxing sleep he's ever had.
The next morning, Ga Eul woke up after a very comfortable sleep. She twisted to her right to find a sleeping Yi Jung in her cell phone. "The video call!" she remembered. Ga Eul stared at him for a while. "Sad to say, but he looks cutest when he's asleep." Ga Eul said to herself. "It's too bad I don't get to see him like this all the time."
She buried the cell phone under her pillow and got changed, making herself presentable, not messy like she was last night. When she was done, she took her phone at again and saw a still sleeping Yi Jung.
After savoring every moment, there was only one thing left to do. She took out a camera and took a picture of herself together with a sleeping Yi Jung. "It's a keeper." She smiled. Ga Eul continued staring at him until his eyes fluttered open. He looked at his cell phone and saw her staring at him.
He gave her a tiny smile that said a whole lot of things. "Ga Eul-yang," he rubbed his eyes and sat up. "Good morning."
"I was wondering when you would wake up," she said. "You looked really peaceful."
"Mmm, I did have a peaceful sleep. How was yours?"
"Relaxing."
They stared at each other for a while. "Thank you." They both said and laughed.
"Jinx!" they said in unison again.
"Give me your love!" Yi Jung said quickly.
(In case some of you didn't know.. when you and another person say the same thing at the same time, it's a jinx, so the two of you would try to get what the other owns. Pretend that we both say the same thing at the same time, right after that I say, "Give me your laptop!" before you do, so then you give me that thing I asked for. You don't exactly have to give what they asked for; it's just for kicks I guess.)
"Yah! What the heck?" Ga Eul laughed and he followed.
"It was worth a try." He shrugged. She smiled at him.
"Sunbae, I never got my turn in the truth game we were playing in the plane. So here's the question: If I gave you my love, what would you give me in return?" she asked.
Yi Jung groaned, "So I don't get to kiss you?! This is so unfair, Ga Eul-yang. You just had to choose your turn in the game via cell phone."
She giggled at his remark. "Come on, answer me."
"What was the question again? I think I stopped listening after you said 'truth game'."
Ga Eul lifted her eyebrows at him in anger.
"What?! When I heard 'truth game', my mind automatically went to the kiss. You can't blame me for that, you know how much I want to be with you." He reasoned out and for some reason, Ga Eul felt like fainting from all the flattery she was feeling.
"You're such a sweet-talker. My question was, If I gave you my love, what would you give me in return?" she repeated.
Yi Jung rested his chin on his hand. "You really wanna know?" he gave his dazzling smile that showed his dimples. He knew how Ga Eul loved his dimples; it was his best feature, he remembered her saying when they were playing the truth game on the plane.
Ga Eul swallowed and nodded.
"If you gave me your love…" Yi Jung whispered. "I'd give you my heart."