[.Chapter III.]

Originally Published On: Nov 19, 2009

Sit Awhile
♥

"Park Bom," her heart skipped, her body frozen and her mind seemed to swirl in circles. Every time he calls out her name, she always seemed to have this special reaction as he calls out her name. It was as if, her body seemed to belong to Ji Yong, that whenever he calls her name, she couldn't stop herself from reacting to it. She tried to brush off that idea by quickly regaining herself back and instantly giving him an annoyed look.


She turned around, hoping that he couldn't tell what he really was making her feel. From the moment they had met, she had this weird feeling that he was a person who was capable of knowing about her more than she had ever wanted anyone to ever know. And that really scared her.


"Yes?" she questioned him, but she wanted to say more than that. She wanted to ask what he wanted, how his day was, what his favorite color is and just get to know him. Of course she couldn't do that. They have known each other for a little more than two months now, and she still didn't know him very well. They've talked, he's always talking, well- more like trying to talk to her, but Bom was always hesitant to talk back with him. She felt like if she gets to know him, she's afraid that a part of her has been stripped down and shown to the world. Especially to him.


"Where are you going?" he quickly caught up with her as she quickly turned back around and continued walking. She was confused. How can this guy make her feel like this?


"Why do you want to know?" she ignored his question.


"Why can't I know?" again he also answered her question with a question. If there was one thing Bom noticed about him, was that he never gives up. Especially with the things he wants.


"Well why should I tell you?" Bom never does either.


"Well why can't you?" she gave out an exasperated sigh, she was not going to win, so she might us well give up.


"Because I don't really know you," well almost gave up, "and you might want to kidnap me," but she was disappointed that she could not come up with a better come back.


He let out a chuckle, "We live in the same building, why would I want to risk doing that when I could just stalk you?" He gave her a playful wink, and immediately a pink tint of color could be seen on her cheeks. "And plus, you can get to know me right now. Actually how about we just get to know each other? How does that sound?"


They continued walking, but Bom did not give a response. She did not want to let him know her true feelings, that she also wanted to get to know him. Every time she sees him, every time they are in the same room, every time they are close to each other, every time that she hears his name from someone, her body never fails to let her know that she has this reaction that she doesn't want to admit to herself that she does.


She was in denial. Why?


Boys was never her best subject in life, and boys and relationships put together was even worse for her. Actually she has only had three boys in her life. One is her dad, another one is in 5th grade named Derek who asked her out, but that technically was nothing but kids trying to act like they know what relationship was about; the other was her first official and last boyfriend she had, Travis.


Bom and Ji Yong walked together for awhile as Ji Yong asked her random questions about herself.


"What's your favorite color?" he would ask.


"Green," Bom always tried to answer short, and nothing more.


"How old are you?"


"Eighteen years old."


"What's your favorite food?"


She paused, looked up for a few seconds, and finally responded, "I can't decide," she paused again, "but my two favorites are oksusu and bread!" she finally changed her expression from nothing to dreamy, food always made Bom happy.


He let out a chuckle, as he heard her answer, "Oh right, I should've known, after that incident at the restaurant, I recall that you just asked for corn and bread."


If there was a word that would describe Ji Yong's feelings at this time for Bom, it was fascination. There was something about Bom that lured him in like he was being pulled by this force that always kept him wanting more. Wanting more to know her, and talk to her, and see her.


He kept questioning her a little more about herself, until Bom immediately stopped. And in front of them was a bakery shop.


At that moment Ji Yong just wanted to laugh and smile at her innocence and her love for bread. Her eyes were twinkling as she stood outside and stared at all the bread that could be seen through the window. She slowly used her hands to look for her wallet in her giant big purse, but still kept her eyes on all the food. She finally got a hold of her purse, and she quickly opened it to see how much money she has.


"Ehhh?..." she let out. Ji Yong just stood beside her watching her every action she made. He was definitely amused, and he found himself smiling so widely that he finally realized that as he was doing this his cheeks were starting to cramp.


He walked closer towards her, and he let out a hearty laugh as he gently took hold of her left hand with his right to pull her inside the store.


Bom couldn't say anything, just dumbfounded that he was suddenly holding her hand. One moment she was caught up of thinking how she didn't have money, and the next Ji Yong took her hands and grabbed it.


"What do you want?" he asked her straight-forwardly as he finally succeeded in getting Bom inside without much trouble.


"No, I don't want anything," she replied shyly, because she was really bad at lying.


"Sure, like your 'Ehhh...?' didn't mean anything," he said as he imitated her now famous line ,because of the incident at the restaurant, perfectly.


"No, seriously," she insisted, but this time with more firm, that could have made it more believable if it wasn't for the next thing that happened. Both of them hear a loud grumbling sound that seems to becoming from Bom's stomach.


"Okay, but I think your stomach is saying otherwise," he chuckled as he turned to the cashier, "Just give me seven breads of whatever you think is the best."


"OMO! Seven?!" she freaked out at him.


"Don't be conceited, not all of that is for you," he said in a teasing manner.


"Here you go, that will be $6.59," the cashier gave him the bread, "I hope you and your girlfriend enjoy this," as she gave them an approving smile.


"Oh no-"


"We will," Ji Yong responded as he interrupted Bom and gently grabbing her hand with his own while holding the bag of bread with his other hand.


After they finally left the store, Bom quickly jerked her hand out his hold.


"What is wrong with you?" she was upset. Even though it was nothing to get all worked up about, she didn't like what he did.


"Well I didn't want to waste more time and give her a longer explanation that we actually are not going out, and that we actually barely know each other. Instead, I just simply agreed with her, and 'Viola!' we're out of that situation, and we will never have to see that girl again," he said cooly, like nothing was wrong with what he did.


But of course Bom thought otherwise. "Well you lied to her, and there's nothing in the world that I hate more than someone pretending something they're not."


She turned away from him and quickly kept walking by herself, not caring if he followed. She was very sensitive to things like this. She had a great feeling of hatred to lies, people who lies. That was something that she was not able to tolerate.


Bom walked for some distance, she does not know how much, she was just too occupied with feeling upset that her mind couldn't focus to anything around her, she doesn't even know if Ji Yong left and went the other way, since she has not looked back to see. She still kept walking until she found a bench on a quiet street that no cars seemed to be passing by. Instead she suddenly found herself feeling peaceful, as she heard the birds chirping, the sun with a beautiful pink glow as it was setting down, and the light cool breeze of the air that mixed very well with the warm temperature.


She sat softly on the side of the bench, as she just closed her eyes and let herself relax and get away from the world. She doesn't know how long how she stayed like that, but she was finally interrupted by a voice next to her.


"My dad left me, my mom, and younger sister when I was seven and my sister only three years old then," she was startled by him, by his all-of-a-sudden presence next to her, that made her wonder how long he has been sitting there next to her, but most of all she was startled by his words and what he told her.


She didn't know how to respond, she was afraid that she would say something wrong and make him even feel worse. Instead she stayed quiet, looked at him will full attention and just let him speak.


"I hated him. I hated how he was not a man enough to to be a father to me and my sister nor a husband to our dear mother. I hated how he left us because he was a coward and couldn't face the responsibilities he had," Bom's heart ached, it pained to see the guy who was always full of energy and life and spirit suddenly brought down with sadness and pain. She wanted to reach out to him, touch his hand, touch his face, give him a hug, anything to let him know that it was okay.


"From that moment on I promised myself to never become like him, believe that I was born without a father, and become the father to my sister that she will never have," he still had his eyes close, which Bom was thankful for. If he had looked at her straight in the eyes while telling her his story, she would not have been able to take it.


"We were poor, barely had enough money to buy food, my mother had to struggle to keep me in school, while also buying the needs that a three year old baby needed," he continued softly. Bom didn't know if he was even talking to her anymore, it was as if he was in a different world and was talking to himself instead.


"I did my best to forget about him, and erased all the memories I had of him, vowed to myself that I will succeed in life one day and support the family he was never able to support," he continued.


Bom was aching and she wanted badly just to wrap her arms around him.


"I was so happy when I got into YG, through this I will make money and give my mother and baby sister what they deserve," Bom's eyes were already watery of tears that wanted to flow down.


He finally opened his eyes and looked at her straight in her eyes, while Bom's tears were flowing down out of her eyes quickly.


"When you told me that you hated me because I lied, I began to remember the time when my dad came home and my mom just found out he had cheated on her," tears were now coming out of Ji Yong's eyes, Bom could not take it anymore and scooted closer to him, and gently placed his head on her shoulder as she put one hand on his back and moved her hands back and forth across his back to calm him down while the other hand was around the front of his shoulder to secure him in his place next to her.


"I lived most of my life making sure that I would not become the person I hated the most, the man who screwed me and my family," he was now looking ahead while he was still wrapped around Bom's arm and his head placed on her shoulder and the crook of her neck.


"But now here I am suddenly resembling him."


She took her right hand that was on his shoulder, and put it on his face to wipe his tears away gently. She always had a soft spot for people's past, especially those who was neglected as a child.


"Sshhh... It's okay," she suddenly felt this motherly instinct in her, she gently placed her cheeks on top of his head, and continued rubbing his back.


They stayed like that for a long time until the it was dark outside, the post lights were turned on, instead of birds you could hear the singing of the crickets,and the shining moon and stars were seen in the sky.


"I'm sorry," Bom quietly said, it was so softly spoken that if Ji Yong was not sitting that close to her, he might not have been able to hear what she said.


"For what?" he finally lifted his head up from her shoulders and gave her a questioning look.


"For making you feel like this today," she said quietly, she was upset with herself that she got mad for nothing, and in the end affecting Ji Yong and making him remember this painful part of his life.


"Don't," he gave her a true warming smile, "it felt good to finally let this out to someone."


She looked down as she felt her cheeks heating up, she was only thankful that it was dark outside so he probably could not see the changing color of her cheeks.


They both stood up, and walked back home to their apartment building as the mood was totally change since the beginning of their walk. They laughed, smiled, shared more stories about their life. Bom was eager to talk to him, as Ji Yong was excited to share a little more of his life and find out a little about Bom's. At the end of the walk Bom could not even remember why she went for a walk earlier that day, she was just so happy to finally make a new friend. She even forgot about the bread he bought for her! How could she forget about one of the greatest things in life? The next morning she went to look in the fridge for some breakfast, and found inside a plastic bag with the all the seven pieces bread inside, and on it was a sticky note.


Park Bom,
You forgot to eat your bread.
Since you didn't eat this with me yesterday, I think you owe me another walk.

P.S. And no, I wasn't the one to come in your apartment and put it here...
Or was I...? ^_*

______________________________

"I'm sorry Ji Yong-ie," she whispered quietly as she couldn't help but cry out in tears as she fell on the sand floor with such an aching heart.