"Dylan, come here!" Yoona calls me over excitedlySeeing how I have no place besides these two, I head over to the two SNSD members
"Hey, Dylan. I hear that you are quite the smarty pants. Mind if I test you?" Tiffany asks
"No problem, shoot"
Tiffany then begins her impromptu pop quiz. Throwing out various questions she thinks are hard to answer. I"m not even sure she knows the answer to some of them.
"Uhm what is the capital of USA?"
"Easy, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C"
"How far is earth from the sun?"
"On average the sun is about 93, 000,000 miles or 150 million kilometres away from Earth"
Yoona looks shocked and asks Tiffany, "Is that right?"
Tiffany unsure of the answer says, "I don"t know but it sounds about right"
I shrug my head at the tandem, before Tiffany continues again
"Hi my name is Tiffany and what is yours? (She speaks in english?)"
"Testing my language skills, too bad this has always been my strong point. How else was I to watch dramas without subt.i.tles. My favourite K-stars would always branch out into china or j.a.pan. Finding subs for those shows was a near mission impossible.
In my past life, I found it way too distracting to read the translations on screen. It caused me to miss out on the visuals. My eyes can"t leave Kim Tae Hee for a second! Every second away from the G.o.ddess is a moment of time lost.
This is basically why, I"m a polyglot. I speak Chinese, Mandarin, Thai, French, English, Spanish, j.a.panese, Russian, Arabic, Korean.
What can I say? I had a lot of free time on my hands.
And when you live for grand purpose like I did, these things come naturally.
Thinking about it, if you factor in school, my part-time job and my endless Kpop lifestyle, its a wonder I never died earlier. I was, up until my "rebirth" functioning on only 3 hours of sleep everyday
for the last 4 years.
Returning back to the conversation at hand, I respond teasingly to Tiffany in perfect english, "It"s a pleasure to meet you Fany, the name is Dylan Park. Has anyone told you; how lovely you look today? Because you are absolutely breathtaking"
Yoona interjects, "No fair speak korean, I have a phobia of englis.h.!.+"
I laugh and pat her head, as i see Tiffany slightly blush from my overly forward compliment.
This time she hits me in j.a.penese, " konnichiwa, ogenki desu ka? (h.e.l.lo, how are you?)"
"genki desu (I"m good)"
"ima isogas.h.i.+ desu ka? (Are you busy now?)"
"dou omoimasu ka? (What do you think?)
"Tabun (Maybe)
"konshuumatsu yotei ga arimasu ka? (what are your plans for this weekend?)"
"Sore wa yois.h.i.+tsu mondesu ne (That"s a good question) ... Kimi to ... (I want to)" Leaning in I whisper into her ear, my breath slightly causing her hair to blow due to the wind " netai (sleep with you)"
This causes Tiffany to shriek, "Aaaaah!"
Yoona slightly startled by tiffany"s sudden outburst grows curious as to what I just said to Tiffany..
But I play innocent, "Gomennasai (I"m sorry) Mata heta desu (I"m still bad (at speaking)"
Returning back to my native language, I challenge Tiffany again, "Anything else you want to ask fany-ah?"
She shakes her head and turns to Yoona, "His really a monster, just like you said!"
"I told you so" Yoona laughs
"Now that, that is out of the way Dylan. Yoona said you taking us all out to eat?"
I look at Tiffany slightly confused, "When did I invite all of you ? I"m pretty sure the invitation was for Yoona only"
Yoona is grabbing on to Tiffany"s arm seemingly having the same concerns as myself.
Since its not a big deal to me, I respond affirmatively "Yeah, but did you clear it with your manager?"
Tiffany laughs, "Why do I have to do that when I"m going to eat with Vice-President nim"
As soon as those words leave her mouth, I turn my attention to Yoona and give her a questioning gaze. Seeing her apologetic look I decide to just brush it off as a slight slip-up
"That"s the last time you are calling me that outside of the company okay?" I say sternly
"Yes sir, " Tiffany puffs her chest out
Yoona however draws objection to this, "No fair , why does she not have to but you always tell me to call you Vice-President or Boss!?"
"Simple answer, because.... i can (hehehe)"
As she is about to put up a fuss, Chae-won has made her way over
"Dylan!" She calls softly
I look to my right where the voice had comes from, "Yes, Chae-won"
"Uhm... can I speak to you for a second"
I signal to the other two, to excuse me so I make my way away from them.
"You can speak freely now"
"Is it... okay if .... Kim Hyon-joong comes with us tonight?" She asks sheepishly
A slight bitter taste rises up in my mouth but I answer anyway "Sure but can I ask why?"
"Well ..uhm" She can"t seem to formulate an answer
I decide to not put her in an uncomfortable position so i say, "It"s fine, you don"t have to tell me if you don"t want to"
"NO!" She suddenly says loudly drawing the attention of others, "No, I want to tell you... It"s .. he asked me out but .... I told him i have plans"
My mind kind of shutoff after she said he asked her out. Yes, I know not all males are blind and there is bound to be some flies around beautiful flowers
I really don"t know how I feel hearing that she might be taken away. It"s not like I love her. I love Irene. I know the difference. If Irene left me, it would feel like life without oxygen. But it still stings somewhat, I don"t know where this feeling is coming from, it might just be my possessiveness speaking.
I can"t seem to control my tongue as I ask involuntarily , "Are you interested in him?"
Realising I spoke my thoughts out loud, I try and backtrack before she answers but I fail.
Chae-won stares at me with those deep eyes and for a moment I lose sight of the rest of the world. The only think I can see is my reflection in her pupils. Noticing her unwavering gaze, I grow shy and retreat when suddenly breaking me from my stupor is her voice saying,
"No. I"m not interested in him at all"
Hearing her answer floods me with a feeling of immense joy. Whether this is due to pride, ego or something else. For now i don"t know.
At the very least, I"ve made my mind up not to run from this feeling anymore. I know it"s selfish of me. It"s extremely selfish. it will probably cause a lot of hurt to a lot of people I care about. But I can"t keep running away. I can"t keep hiding.
Especially not from those eyes. Those sincere eyes, that hold my entire being within. I need to face it head on. I need to walk into traffic. I need to run towards the speeding train. Like Icarus who flew to close to the sun, I need to burn. I need to ..... have the courage to dare.
I lift my foot, that seems to be attached to the floor. Slowly, Slowly. I take a deep breath and step forward. I step forward again. and again. Until Chae-won"s entire body is covered by mine.
Pulling her into a soft embrace, I stop her from struggling, she appears as befuddled about my actions, as I am right now. Resting my head for a moment on top of hers I say softly, " Good girl"
Immediately thereafter I release her. And slip back into my usual cheery demeanor and shout loudly to the SNSD members, "Girls let"s go FEAST!"
They respond with a war-cry like scream "Yes!"
Looking at Hyun-joong, I declare silently "The battle has begun!"