Main Characters in the Story:
*Kim So Hyun as "Athena" Myung-hee Park
*Tom Hiddleston as Himself
Chapter X: You Can't Possibly Be Real
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"I'm sorry it took me so long to realize." I say to Tom. "But I seriously love your car."
He smiles. Once I'm out of the car, he throws the car door shut. "Thank you. I like it as well."
"I've always wanted one of those trucks from Ram, but this." I run my hand over the surface. Smooth, warm, just perfect.
"Hm. I wouldn't expected you as the kind for trucks."
I shrug then slightly smiled. "I mean, I love seeing a new Mercedes-Benz C250 Coupe, but I always hope that one day I will drive in my dream car; a 2013 Ram 1500 Express. Black, especially."
"Wow." He says to me. "You sure do know your cars." He moves to my side as we walk down the sidewalk to Remo's.
I regret telling him to bring me here. What if he insists on waiting with me? "Eh. Just a bit. I only know a lot about the ones I really like."
"Is that so?"
"You're questioning my mad skills, Mr. Hiddleston?"
"What are the wheels on the Express?"
"Twenty-inch aluminum, Goodyear brand."
"How much does the fuel tank hold?"
"Twenty-six gallons?"
"Transmission?"
"Six-speed automatic, sixty-five R-F-E." I cross my arms and shift my weight to my right leg.
He nods his head in approval. "Impressive. I've never met a woman who knows so much about cars. I hope you don't mind my honesty, but I find that a very attractive trait in women."
"Your honestly is tolerated without difficulty." I shook my head, raising my eyebrow and slightly chuckle at his compliment.
He laughs. "Is this you attempt at sounding sophisticated?"
"It depends. Did it work?"
"In a funny way, yes. It sort of did."
"Then yes. I would have been slightly embarrassed had it been a failed attempt." I smiled. I've been smiling so much these days. It's unusual to me. I hardly ever to find a reason to smile. Geuga na-ege mwohago issni? {What is he doing to me?} Geuga eotteon mabeob-eul naege deonjibnikka? {What kind of sorcery does he cast upon me?} "At least there's one thing attractive about me."
He looks at me, his face expressing curiosity about what I'd just said. "What do you mean 'one'?
I shrug again. "I don't have beauty. I don't have brains. I don't have popularity. If you said there's an attractive trait in me, that's a pure miracle."
He raised his (perfect) eyebrow. "But you are beautiful, and from your use of large vocabulary words, you seem to be very smart."
I snort softly. "Please. I read them out of a book. I'm not that smart."
"It must have been a pretty advanced book, then. And the fact that you remember their definitions is another piece of good proof."
"You sound like you're investigating me. I thought Benedict Cumberbatch was Sherlock. Not you."
"I don't know. I like to say I have my moments."
I don't care about who Sherlock is and who's not. I just wanted to get him off the subject. I don't need anyone to convince me of these lies. I'm perfectly fine with the truth: I am not attractive.
As we pass by Payless, I look into the store through the window. Heels, sandals, sneakers… BOOTS! There is a beautiful pair of boots size seven by the looks of it. My shoe size. I stop walking and stare at them in awe. There they are, just sitting there without an owner to wear them. It's a good thing, most Asian girls have small feet. Almost lucky to be in fact. Black with slightly-visible white stitches, the rims of the openings are grey and furry and the heels is three inches. If only I could just walk in there and take them without any trouble…
"What's the matter?" Tom says. He had continued walking without me accidentally, so he moved back to my side and tried to find what I was staring at. "What is so interesting that you have to stand in front of this shop and stare?"
"Those." I say mindlessly. I press my fingers to the glass, pointing to the pair of black boots.
"What? They're boots."
"Perfect boots. They're lovely."
He looks at me, then the boots, then back at me. "You act like you've never worn boots before."
"I haven't." My parents never let me try wearing boots because they 'weren't very classy.' I would absolutely love to have those boots. I need to start selling some stuff fast. Eojjeomyeon yuhog-eseo naon gabs bissan jyueolliga hyogwagaiss-eul geos-ibnida. {Maybe some expensive jewelry from Temptation should work.}
"So you like them." Tom asks me.
"South Koreans' first love is fashion, Tom. Love at first sight. Haven't you ever felt it before?"
Eh?! He grabs my hand and leads me away from the window. My heart cracks with every inch of distance gained. It's just a dream I'll never reach. I tear my eyes away from the boots and watch the ground as we walk. I really like those boots.
We continue heading for Remo's when he stops at the beginning of a crosswalk.
I look around. "What are you doing? Remo's is down that way." I jab my thumb in its direction.
"I am aware of that. I just thought we could take a small detour."
"I knew it. I knew you're trying to kill. You just thought it would be easier to make me think you were walking me to Remo's. And why'd you park so far away? You know there's parking downtown, right?"
"My goodness." He says with a smile. "I've never had a date with so many questions. Can't you just take the romance as it comes?"
"Not when I'm sixteen, alone with a man I only met yesterday. Not to mention it's way too dark for seven o'clock right now. And if you are seriously trying to take advantage of me, I swear I will kick your ass harder. Remember that, I was trained martial arts in Judo and Jujutsu. Famous actor or not. I will not hesitate to break your pretty face."
"Alright, alright. I see where you're coming from. I don't know how to prove to you that I don't want to hurt you. I'm telling you. Yesterday, when I crashed into you, I was only planning on making sure you were okay and then postponing the interview."
"Oh, how sweet." I say sarcastically.
He laughs almost nervously. "Mind you, I was in a rush. But… I looked at you, and… and I thought I was going insane."
"Insane? What do you mean?"
"I don't know." He leads me to the middle of the park, where there is soft, slow music playing. The trees are decorated beautifully, lightly frosted with special lights hanging from their branches that look like drops of water are from them. It's a beautiful shade between regular blue and light blue. "I always see teenagers around here. I just look at them as, no offense meant towards you, but a bunch of obnoxious adults-in-training."
"Well, I can't argue with you there. We can be really annoying, too."
He smiles. "But you… you were different. I saw you, and I couldn't look away. You were beautiful, you are beautiful, and I don't know what came over me. Whatever that feeling was when I saw you, I know I haven't felt that way in a really long time."
Oh my God. {Eom-ma-ya.} Waei modeun mal-eulhaneungeoya? geugeos-eun naleul deo joh-ahagehanda! Naneun nae gisangcheonsuga bang-geum jug-eossdago saeng-gaghanda. O ileon. {Why is he say all of this? It makes me like him more! I think the fangirl in me just died. Oh God.}
"Do you realize you had me thinking about you so much, I couldn't fall asleep at all yesterday?"
I would've been more than glad to help. I am tempted to say that, but I think it will just ruin the moment. I'll save it for my Twitter feed or something. Or maybe Instagram. I don't know. I'll find some site that will mostly help. "Jeez, Tom. What did I do to deserve all these" -lies- "compliments?" I don't believe in anything he's saying. Come one. I'm practically a child who pretty much proved to him that he's my favorite actor. How is he not going to use that to manipulate me? Probably just looking for a - (I can't believe I'm going to say this word) a bitch to give him a head. Nothing new.
"Well, if I'm going to want you to date me, and I really do, I feel the need to let you know why I want you to."
"Eh. You are most definitely not a fake."
He looks at me, confused. "I beg your pardon?"
"You know how there are celebrities who are just the 'sweetest' things on television, and then once the camera's off they can be total jerks?"
He shrugs. "Yes. I've met quite a few of those."
"Luckily, you're not one of them."
"I hope it stays that way." He looks around. The party is empty, only the sound of the music and cars passing by are heard. "I don't know if it pushing it, but would you like to dance? If only for a minute?"
Dance. Uh-oh. He wants me to dance. I can't dance. No one's ever bothered to teach me how to dance. A neo. Ani-yo, ani-yo, ani-yo! {Aw, man. No, no, no!} Why would you ask me that? Of all things? Damn it. Worst of all, I can't say no? Should I just say it? Yeah. Just say it nicely. Okay. Here we go. "Um. Sure." I say, my voice a little more cheer than I expected it to be. Dangsin-i jalmoshaessdago, meongcheong a! Geugeos-eun N-Oibnida! Ani-yo! {You said it wrong, you idiot! It's N-O! No!}
He slides his hand around my waist. His jack is open; so when he pulls me to his body, I am almost instantly warm with the heat from his body and the warmth of his jacket. I rest my arms on his, my hand on his shoulder. He takes my other with his free one and intertwines my fingers with his. He holds it close to us, pressing it cheeks, then against his neck. He presses his forehead to mine.
My dark-brown eyes gaze into his wonderful blue-green ones. I feel the urge to look away and avoid it, especially since my face is heating up, but I try my hardest not to. I don't looking people in the eye. It makes me feel like they'll either start yelling at me (I don't know why), or they'll be able to see every single flaw on my face. And there's a lot of those. But today has to be different. I have to be at least try to get over those fears so I can share more of these kinds of moments with him in the future.
"What are you thinking about?" he asks with his soft voice.
"Mm. Nothing. Nothing but you."
"Me?" He doesn't sound surprised. "What about me?"
"Just the fact that you can't be real."
"I can't? And why not?"
"Because you are too perfect. You can't possibly be real. No man's this spectacular."
"No man? You obviously haven't met many men."
"No, but it only takes one man to convince you that all men are dogs. I was just lucky to find you."
"I'm thinking the same about you."
But you're not lucky. Nowhere near lucky. You're a liar. I know you are. You all are. I look away from his eyes, now doing everything I can to avoid them.
We dance for a few minutes, holding each other closely. When I look up at the sky, I realize it's gotten much darker as the time passed. I have to be at Remo's soon. The owner will lock me out if I'm out. "I see." I say softly. I pull away from him, letting of his hand. I've been non-stop giving myself reasons as to why shouldn't consider himself lucky.
"What's the matter?" He says, shoving his hand in his pockets.
"Nothing. I just… I have to get to the restaurant. I'm sure my friend has got there already."
"Oh. Alright. Would you like me to walk you there?"
"No." I answer quickly. "I'm fine. You can just go."
"Are you sure?"
I nodded. "Yes. I'm sure. Thank you so much for today. I absolutely loved it."
"I'm glad you did. Um… when can I see you again?"
Why in the hell would you want to see me again? "I don't know. I have school this week, so I don't think you'll be able to until Friday."
"You said you go to Stamford High School."
"Mhm. For the last three years."
"Oh. Well, alright. I'll see you soon. Then wait, how will I contact you?"
Goddamn it. A truly golden question. "Hm. I don't know. I don't have a cellphone, so…"
"Really? I would've thought you had one by now."
"Okay, can you please stop by stereotypes? It's kind of annoying."
He smiles. "I'm sorry. I'm, uh, just not used to dating someone much younger than me."
"Well, I don't mean to be a bit bossy," -–yes I do- "but if you really feel something for me, then you should really get used to it."
He gives me a quick kiss. "I know. I will get used to it."
"Thank you." I give him a hug. "I don't know I'll talk to you again. But if I don't find a way by Friday, can you meet me at the library?"
"Sure. If you'd like me to."
Oh yes, I would. "Okay, I've gotta go."
He kisses me on the cheek. "Until Friday." He whispers into my ear causing my cheeks to burn red. He turns around and walks to his car.
I stand there, frozen, still think about how his whispering voice gave me immediate Goosebumps. It sounds sexier than I imagined it would be! The things I would love for him to say to me like that…
This definitely feels like I'm in a Kdrama fantasy world…