Ara turns her head to face Junghwa. She noticed that he had parked his car now, in which they had arrived at Junghwa's house. Junghwa is now facing her face to face in the car seats, in which the two lock their eyes to one another.
"I'm fine," Ara says. "Let's just go."
Ara starts taking her seatbelts off, while Junghwa who is still confuse only follows her and takes off his seatbelts. After exiting the car, the walks inside the Junghwa's house, in which is currently empty since his dad still hasn't return and his mom is at the hospital taking care of his grandpa.
Half an hour later...
Ara continues to play the piano in peace. Junghwa had taught her to try and play a new song on the piano. To his surprise, she was actually quite fast in learning this song. Other than that, her piano skills had increased a lot since the first lesson.
"Very good," Junghwa says as he watches Ara continue to play the piano.
Following his advice, at some points she closes her eyes during some parts of the song, to memorise the musical notes from within.
As Ara finish playing the last part of the song, Junghwa starts giving his applause for her. She didn't react much though, since she only remain silent with a poker face. Deep down, her behaviour made Junghwa wondered whether she's mad with him, or something's definetly not right.
"Ok, umm...great job," Junghwa says to the still-silent Ara. He knew well that she's definetly upset about something. He doesn't really have any ideas what could cause her to be so upset, by that he can't stop thinking about it.
Another half an hour passed, signaling the lesson coming to an end. Through out the lesson, Ara remained quiet and only talked to Junghwa if it was necessary. Junghwa wanted to assume she had a bad day or something, though it wasn't really a satisfying answer to his curiousity.
"That's a wrap," Junghwa says.
"Ok. I shall go," Ara says as she grabs her backpack from the floor. After that, she walks over to exit the piano room door.
"Wait!"
Ara turns her head to see Junghwa standing still in front of the piano. His eyes filled with wonders, as he stares into Ara's brown eyes. Her empty gaze and her lips which didn't not presented a smile said enough about the storm in heart. Deep inside, Junghwa felt an uncomfortable feeling looking at his best friend looking like a poker-face. Somehow, sadness starts lingering in his heart, which he isn't gonna ignore just like that.
"What?" Ara asks in a flat tone.
"So, there's this new diner plus bowling arcade not far from here. I was wondering if you would be down for it with a chill dinner?" Junghwa asks while scratching the back of his head awkwardly. For the first time, he actually feels awkward out of no where as he remember.
Ara became silent for a moment. Her face remains the same, not showing even a little change in her emotionally exhausted look. Deep down, she wanted to limit any type of interactions with Junghwa, so hearing that he is asking her out for dinner and bowling only irritated her heart deep down.
"I'm busy," Ara says in a flat tone.
"Come on, just for a while," Junghwa states.
"Why don't you just ask Hana?" Ara asks, the tone of her voice was slightly raise. Though it wasn't too visible, Junghwa noticed it.
"I want to spend some time with my best friend tonight," Junghwa says. "Can I?"
Ara sighs. Just when she is in the process of moving on from him and forgetting about her feelings, he had to ask her out all of a sudden. Like he had understood her weakness, he demolished the defenses of her heart in the most perfect way. Her mind keeps telling her to not accept his invitation, but like the heart kept stopping the mind to do what's right, she came back wondering that it probably wouldn't hurt just to go out with him, at least for tonight.
"Ok," Ara answers in a flat tone. Her vision gaze down at the ground, now fully avoiding any eye contact with him.
Hearing her answer, Junghwa forms his signature, rather cheeky smile. Thinking about the last time he had a chill dinner with Ara, he hoped that tonight will be way better with the bowling activity. Besides, he wanted to cheer her up in her foul mood, and also consider this as his "thank you" gesture for her.
"Then let's go," Junghwa says as he walks out to exit the piano room. To make a small surprise, he grabs Ara's hand on the way as he exits, dragging her heart outside as her heart just skipped a beat.
As much as I try to forget him from my mind, he keeps crawling back into my heart. Ara thought.
Half an hour later...
At The Bowling Diner...
After arriving at the new bowling diner, Junghwa and Ara decided to order dinner first before they start to play bowling. While Junghwa decided to go with chicken pasta, Ara wanted to have a small bowl of mushroom soup for tonight. Not really having much appetite, Junghwa knew well that she's definetly in a foul mood since she chose to eat less. By that, he decided to order some side dishes as well and encouraged her to eat more. For the side dishes, he ordered fried potato wedges, bite-sized fried chicken, and nachos.
"Is the soup good?" Junghwa asks as he watches Ara continue to play with her mushroom soup.
"It's good," Ara answers in a flat tone.
She still avoided eye contact with Junghwa, before finally taking a spoon of her mushroom soup.
Looking at the girl with long black hair being all silent, Junghwa's random yet creative mind suddenly pops an idea, hoping that it would actually cheer her up. Junghwa grabs a nacho from the big bowl on the center of the table, before he stretches his hand out in front of Ara, who had just took another spoon of mushroom soup.
"What?" Ara asks as she finally stares into Junghwa's eyes.
"It's a nacho. Give it a try," Junghwa says.
Ara rolls her eyes. "And you know I'm not a fan of corn tortillas."
"Come on, Kim Ara. It doesn't hurt to try. Trust me, it's good," Junghwa says in a conviencing tone, but more likely, his main goal was too lighten up Ara's foul mood.
By that, Ara took a bite of the nacho in Junghwa's hand. The taste of the cripsy nacho complete with the cheese and jalapeno blends perfectly together. To Ara's surprise, it tastes better than what she imagined, but what surprised her more, was that she felt her cheeks starting to blush when she took a bite of the nacho from Junghwa's hand. While smiling at her, Junghwa's smile gets bigger as he noticed her face forming a surprised look.
"See what I meant?" Junghwa asks. He knew that his little act would do. For what he had learned from his playboy experience, women can't seem to hate any form of attention when needed. Yet, his action was never intended to make Ara fall for his act. He's simply doing it in a friendly manner of friendship.
"Yeah," Ara says, as her heart slowly starts to beat faster as she gets nervous of her now blushing cheeks. Again, she tries to avoid any eye contact with Junghwa.
Junghwa chuckles. "That's called the delicious part of life."
"Is life even a food?" Ara turns her vision back to Junghwa with a puzzled look. Again they are having eye contact, with her heart still beating faster.
"Life actually depends on how we view it through our perspectives," Junghwa states, with his lips forming a smile.
Ara's POV...
I stare at the so-called cheeky boy. As the sound of pop music can be heard through this urban style diner, my vision got enchanted by him with my puzzled look. Sometimes I found his words to be too clever for someone like him, though that's exactly the reality I can't deny. As much as I wish to deny the thought, but I can't deny the reality. Staring at him now, I figured that avoiding his eye contact and giving him the silent treatment were really no use. By now, I only realized how I've only trained myself to be a coward over my own best friend, who by unplanned, I had grew further attractions for.
"Ara," Junghwa calls my name. Without breaking the eye contact we're having, he managed to make my heart skipped a beat.
"Oh, what?" I ask him. I try my best to portray the normal type of friend. I no longer want to give him the silent treatment or even avoid his eye contact, when all of that were useless.
"You know, I just remembered. At Matt's party, I didn't see you around midnight. Were you ok?" Junghwa asks. "I didn't remember it till now. Sorry."
Hearing his sudden question, my heart suddenly feels like it's being stir around. Mixed emotions are all placed in one place, making the heart feel agitated, and more than that, confuse as hell. He was probably too busy having fun with Hana, that he didn't that I was even gone before midnight. It honestly irritated me. But again, hearing his apology for not remembering till now made me feel a little better. Deep down, inside my heart there's a pinch of hope, believing that his words represents his heart, and that even though his heart is filled with Hana, in the smallest place hidden inside, there is a still an empty space for me.
"I was just drunk, but ok," I answer, before taking a sip of my chocolate milkshake.
"Zach drove me back," I add. Well, I didn't thought it was neccesary to tell him about the part where we stayed at a hotel, since it was impossible to go home knowing my parents will for sure panic like the typical crazy parents.
Junghwa's eyes starts to blink, as his face looks kind of relief, and that his curiousity of my disappearance at the party had been answered.
"Well, as long as you're ok, that's good," Junghwa says. "Zach's a good guy. He can take care of you."
"And I can take care of myself if I wasn't so drunk," I say in a sassy yet also rather annoyed tone. My mood-swings starts getting into me as I viewed his last sentence to be insensitive. At least, that's what I wanted to think. Or maybe, I just wish he gave me more attention.
Junghwa chuckles. "The sassy girl is back in town. Glad you're ok again, Ara."
I sigh. "I was, and I am, ok."
"Well, I thought you looked quite sour today," Junghwa says. "As a friend, of course I have the urge to change that."
"Well, some feelings can't be change," I say, again in a sassy tone.
Junghwa chuckles. "But temporary ones can."
Hearing that, I became speechless as I stare at the cheeky boy, who is now smiling at me, with a small smirk that could seem to be both alluring yet also annoying to me.
To be continue...