15th➳

"Let me go!" I screamed, trying to break free from this person's grip but it wasn't working out for me. "Whㅡwho are you?!"

The person who was pulling me away in the empty-like streets didn't reply to my question but instead continued dragging me away. After we were far away enough, we stopped, catching our breathes. He turned around to face me and when I saw his face with the little light there was, he smiled while I gasped. "Are you okay?"

"Jisoo..."

He flipped me around, examining and checking if I was hurt anywhere. "No scratches or bruises?"

I just shook my head at him. Why is it that whenever I needed help, Joshua pops out of nowhere and swoops into the rescue? I'm so indebted to him. "Komawoyo, Hong Jisoo."

He stopped examining me and looked into my eyes. With an easy smile, he asked, "Wae?"

"For saving me... again," I said, giving him a small smile back. "You're like my guardian angel who protects me whenever I'm in danger."

"Then it's official. I'm your guardian angel." Joshua smirked back at me. He knelt on one knee, like some hooligan going to propose to a girl. "I promise to protect Kwon Nari no matter what haㅡ"

Before he could finish his sentence, I quickly walked away, pretending I didn't know the dude.

"Yah! Kwon Nari! I wasn't done talking!" Joshua shouted behind me, but I could tell he was smiling like a fool. 

When he turned me around by pulling onto my wrist, I asked him, oblivious, "Do I know you?"

"Yah! Why are you being like this?" Joshua asked me.

"Because I don't know you," I simply replied. Shaking his grip off my wrist, I said, "I'm going home now."

"Are you kidding? You're going home alone?" Joshua caught me. He ran up me when I was farther up the streets. "You're going to walk home after what I got you out of?"

"Hey, they could be gone." I gave him a shrug. "I'll be fine, Mom."

"I don't care if they're gone or not. I'm walking you home whether you like it or not," he told me, holding my hand, which made me flinch in place. "What? Did I scare you?"

Keeping silent, I shook my head and let him be. We began walking in the empty, dark streets hand-in-hand. When I heard a sound that made me flinch, I squeezed Joshua's hand and he squeezed it back, giving me a reassurance and the sense of being protected.

"It's okay. I'm here," Joshua whispered, pulling me closer to him as we continued walking in the direction of my apartment. I tried so hard making sure Joshua doesn't ever come close to my apartment, yet, it seems like everything I tried will eventually backfire.

He's seen my mom. He's seen my dad. He's seen my cousins. He knows it all. He knows what my life is like, how I'm living, what it's like. Yet, he stays by my side even after he saw the horrible scars I cover with my sleeves. He decided to stay instead of running away and ignoring me like I was no one.

Why?

I hated thinking. I hated how it'll distract me from reality and how it consume the time I use for daydreaming. I hate how Joshua was in my mind and I couldn't do anything about it.

As we continued to walk and walk, I found myself squeezing his hand from time to time because it felt warm and squishy. The feeling was foreign, yet, it also felt like a distant friend. I don't know what he was doing to me, but I realized it wasn't him who was doing this to me. It was clearly me who let it sink in, who let it happen. Though it's funny because it was inevitable in the first place.

"This is close enough," I said to him, halting in my tracks. It was a block away from my apartment, but I didn't want Joshua to walk me all the way there. "You should go home now."

"Are you sure? Wouldn't it be safer if I walked you to your apartment lobby?" Joshua insisted.

I broke my hand free from his and waved goodbye. "I'll see you at school tomorrow. Bye."

Joshua was reluctant but he waved a hand back. "Make sure you get home safe. And head back quickly. It's cold out. I don't want you getting a cold."

"I won't. I'm going now. Go home now, Joshua. Bye."

♥

At home, Mom wasn't passed out by the table. This time, she was on the couch, sleeping in distress. I could clearly see the wrinkles on her head in her sleep and for once in years, I felt sorry for her. Why did she continue to live this way?

Shaking my head, I just told myself that it wasn't my problem anymore. I headed into my room feeling exhausted from running away from the three drunken men in the streets. I sat down on my bed then lied flat on my back. I took out my phone and went to my recent applications, where I found Joshua's selca.

Your adorable Joshy-poo!

Gosh, he even edited the selca of his. There were so many stickers on it but his face was still visible. I looked at his lips, which resembled a cat's. It was admittedly adorable, his lips. I shook my head and lightly slapped my cheek. What are you thinking about, Kwon Nari? His lips?

I turned off my phone and looked at the ceiling. Thoughts washed over me but I didn't entertain any of them with the exception of one.

That was when I start to fall for you.

♥

"You got home safely last night, right?" Joshua asked in a whisper, sliding to the seat next to me in class.

It was just like any other day this scene would appear. Yet, for some reason, it felt new and different. Like it was the first time I was experiencing it, and it was stupid. "Yeah, I did."

"Really? No weird ahjusshi walking around and about?" Joshua asked one more time. He was really persistent. 

"Hong Jisoo, how many times must I repeat until you finally get it into your mind?" I asked him, turning away as a smile plastered over my face. Pressing my lips together, I tried to press my lips into a thin line while turning back to face him.

"You're smiling a lot right now. Wae? Did something good happen to you last night?" he asked me in a teasing voice.

If only he knew. "No."

"Then?"

"I sneaked out of the house in the middle of the night and bonded with the drunk men."

Joshua's smiley face fell into a sudden shocked one. Even his jaw dropped as he continued to stare at me with an expression I couldn't read properly.

"I'm kidding, Jisoo," I said, laughing lightly and patting his shoulder. "You're still gullible. Very gullible. It's fun playing tricks on you."

Joshua, who came back from his shocked spell, playfully pushed my head to the side and then smiling it off. "You're still prankster Nari."

"Oh? When did I get a new nickname?" I have been given so many nicknames by Joshua lately and I couldn't even remember them. I only remember the one he always useㅡlittle Nari.

"Just now," he answered, grinning back then replacing it with a smile which I loved seeing because it made me smile too. But my smile turned into a broken frown when I realized I wasn't the only one who fell under this spell called... love. There was still Jiyeon and she seems to care about him a lot. "What's wrong?"

Without answering his question, I turned back my attention to my empty desk. Then putting an elbow on my desk, I rested my head on my palm while playing with the pen on the table lifelessly. I shouldn't do this to Jiyeon. But it ended up being inevitable. Either I have to end my feelings or Jiyeon has to. And it was pretty obvious which one of us had to do it.

♥

I still didn't know why I kept returning to the convenient store and was still working there. Hoya and Jaemin weren't living in my apartment anymore. What on earth am I working for? But I couldn't leave either because I've grown too close to the convenient store. That was where everything started and to leave it... Well, might as well kill me first.

I heard Mom's trial in the court was three days from now but Jisoo is trying everything he could to help bail my mom out that it seemed to make his sister throw a fit. I was scared of Jiae. She seemed like a witch hidden behind a princess masquerade... like me.

Jung Eunji.

That's who Jiae knows me as. The masquerading girl messing around with wealthy and well-known people. Why was I even kidding with myself? Being friends was almost hard enough but if I posses trivial feelings for Joshua, wouldn't that just make me look like a gold digger, even if I wasn't one?

"Hey, Nari," Sleepy Sunggyu greeted, waving a hand at me while resting his heavy head onto his palm as he manned the cashier with his barely visible eyes. "Jisoo isn't with you?"

I just realized Joshua wasn't even with me on the way to the convenient store. Times like this, he would already be in here, working. Now that he wasn't, I began worrying on where he could be.

I took out my phone, ready to hit the call button on his contacts, when suddenly a text message arrived seconds before my finger landed on the screen with the call icon.

Jiyongie: Going on a date with Handsome Princely Jisoo. Wish me luck! Gosh, I'm nervous...

That was when I felt like something broke. I looked around thinking some glass fell down on the floor and I accidentally got cut from the flying glass from standing too close from it but it came to a realization that there was none. There wasn't even a glass cup in the store.

Then what could possibly be that stinging pain I feel? It felt like someone grabbed my arm and began engraving my name with a shattered piece of glass on it. No, actually, the pain was far more indescribable than some shattered glass.

Putting my phone back into the pocket of my jacket and grabbing my apron and a mop to clean the candy aisle because some kid spilled his chocolate ice cream there, I wondered why Joshua didn't tell me about "his date" beforehand. He was always the one telling about the things going on in his life and what he'll be doing later when I'm not around.

What, is his family a type who wears a believable mask and put on a charade to manipulate someone the way Joshua is doing to me? The way he's stuck in my mind every day, every minute, every second on the clock? The way his smile reminds me of rainbows with kittens frolicking under it?

I've fallen for the person in the mask rather than the one behind it. Even with all the honesty he's been giving me, there's always a chance he's tricking someone as gullible and naïve as me. Because I'm just a person who doesn't know about love. I'm just another kid thinking a fairytale love still exists.

Time kept thinking on the clock but it felt like an hour hasn't even gone by. I stood in one spot for an hour and a half before changing to another one then standing there like a living statue for another thirty minutes. Every second that passed by, I grimaced at myself because I was wondering what on earth Joshua and Jiyeon would be doing.

Why hasn't he come back? Why hasn't he contacted me? The questions kept on flooding in that I got annoyed with myself. I wanted a distraction so I bought a bag of gummy bears to chew while working.

It was a good thing Sunggyu only concentrated on keeping his eyes open rather than the way I was acting. It saves my saliva. I didn't want to have to answer a bunch of useless questions even I don't know the answer to.

Forty minutes before my shift end and still no messages from Joshua nor even a small missed call. I eventually gave up waiting. As well as... coming to a decision: just like the way I gave up waiting for him to at least leave a message, I should give up on having such petty feelings for a boy who is out of my league. Who's the total opposite of me. It was hard trying to keep him as a friend. If it was that hard to achieve such friendship, shouldn't friendship just stay as friendship?

Twenty minutes left and I got exhausted every second that ticked by. The sun was already down and the lights flickered on, casting a beautiful, enchanting spell outside the convenient store where people walked around togetherㅡeither friends, couples or alone.

When my shift finally ended, I grabbed my bag and folded my apron so I could put it away in the back room where the lockers were now located. After sealing the lock with the key, I exited the dusty, dark room and said goodbye to Sunggyu, whose eyes were now in a straight line.

"Oh? Okay. Get home safely," said Sunggyu, waving goodbye with one hand while the other was busy rubbing his eyes.

I didn't say another word to him other than a nae once I headed out of the convenient store, feeling sour and abandoned. That was when my natural instinct kicked in. I was only a kid. I didn't know anything about love. I didn't know such feeling was more than what they described it. It wasn't a feeling where you could see fireworks and experience a pounding heartbeat. It wasn't just that.

Love is just a disguise. It's like the advertisements you see around you. They're promising, they sound great and enjoyable but once you actually come and try it, you realize it was more than what they say. Love has different other feelings disguised and hidden in it. There's also the feeling of loneliness, sadness, betrayed. Next time I feel a mix of emotions, I'll just tell them love is the cause. That's what love always be. It's nothing but a game that changes easily.

"Hi, Nari!" That was when someone suddenly pulled me into a close hug.

I got scared for a second that I flopped around like a fish out of water a little but when I settled down and saw the face of the person who scared me, I gave them a slap on the arm. "Aish! You can be very annoying at times!"

"I'm just being me, Kwon Nari," Jihoon simply said as he stuffed his hands into his pocket. We began slowly walking down the cold streets of Seoul, where street vendors with stores set up in front of bigger stores sold their food. I could smell the heavenly aroma of tteokbokki and it made my mouth water and stomach drool. "What was with you a moment ago? You were walking so soullessly I actually thought you were possessed by a ghost. Were you deep in thought?"

I ignored him and walked in front of the street vendor ahjusshi who was selling tteokbokki. He said, "It's cheap! 3, 000 won for one cup!"

Too bad. I was short by 1, 000. I didn't bring that much money whenever I was out and about. Smiling an apologetic smile at the ahjusshi, I heavy heartedly walked away from the tteokbokkies he were selling. I swear, one day, I'm going to own a big house have big cars and big rings.

"Nari-yah, are you doing all right these days? Where's that dude you're always with? Er... What's his name again?" Jihoon asked me as we passed by some college students performing in the middle of the streets. Almost immediately, Jihoon excitedly wandered over to where the unnie and oppadeul were sitting.

I emerged out of the small crowd to stand in front of them. Jihoon was sitting on one of the chairs provided there, most probably by the college students. They helped Jihoon set everything up that I ended up finding myself staring at a seated Jihoon with a guitar around him and a microphone on its stand connected to a speaker in front of him.

He strummed a clean, free note before officially starting to play a song. "I'm going to sing a song called Because of You sung by After School."

Jihoon began singing and his voice sounded sweet and clean. More people gathered and even some high school girls stopped from walking to watch a handsome boy in a guitar sing. I swear, I could hear their squeals from Itaewon.

"Neo ddaemunae neo ddaemunae~" Jihoon continued singing, putting his heart on every lyric of the song.

The song reminded me of someone. Just like the song, I didn't one to forget that person. Just like the song, I felt like I was hurting just because of one person.

Neo ddaemunae, Hong Jisoo.

~Author's Notes~

The "I'll never forget you girl" of the song sung by Joshua before their debut is diamond  ♥*plays Shinning Diamonds*

So! It seems like our little Nari has fallen in love after (say the name!) seventeen years of her life. But it doesn't seem like her love story would be an easy one. How will Nari handle this?

Thanks for reading this chapter! I hoped you enjoyed every single word instead of quickly reading because where's the fun in that?

Also, happy birthday to Hwanhee and Baekhyun oppa! :)) I'm officially 15 today, too ;)

Btw, thanks for 1K followers!! <333 I love all my Kimichies, forever and always ♥

See you in the next chapter!

xoxo

Byun Sang Kyung