Made In Chiang Mai

Third Part

"Oh no.." She had been up and sitting on her bed for ten minutes now. Her head was aching and the memory from last night kept replaying again and again, getting more vivid the more she thinks about it.

She wanted to stop her mind. Maybe rubbing her head wasn't enough.

She hits herself hard and groans in pain.

"Stupid. Stupid." Chae Yoon cringes when she hears herself saying all those words to him last night. Where did that even came from?

She just kissed a man she met for two days. Drunk. "A Korean cop in Thailand gets charged with sexual harassment on her second day of vacation."

Fuck.

"I need to apologize," she bends down and tries to reach her phone on the floor, opening it to a battery of ten percent and hurriedly going to the messages. Just when she was about to type, the doorbell rang.

At six in the morning?

She rushes to it, opens it, sees his face right there and loudly slams it back.

"What the hell is going on." Her breathing starts to become erratic, heart beating faster out of nervousness and she sinks herself down to the floor. Chae Yoon begins to wonder if he was with the authorities.

That can't be...

It was an accident. Please.

He knocks on the door again.

On the other side, Tae Gu's face was practically planted on the surface of her door already, calling her name and getting worried if she was having a severe hangover or what. He scratches his head and waits for a few more minutes.

Slowly, the door opens and he sees her one eye cautiously peeking at him.

"Why aren't you dressed up yet?" He asks almost too non-chalant, like she had not just kissed him on the lips a few hours ago.

She blinks once, twice. She couldn't understand what he meant.

"You told me last night to take you to the elephant sanctuary."

"I did?"

"While we were walking the stairs."

She couldn't remember last night how she took out the crumpled brochure from her bag and shoved it to his face, pointing at a photo of an elephant she encircled.

"See that," she said for the umpteenth time as Tae Gu drags her drunk body upstairs, groaning when she blocked his view with the paper screaming, "Let's go tomorrow!"

"There's a lot of sanctuaries here. Which one exactly?"

"I don't know," she hums.

She couldn't also remember how she threw up on the side of the road on their way back as Tae Gu patiently leans against his truck, crossing his arms, watching her pour her heart out in the bushes. He had tissues at the back and bought a bottle of water at a nearby store in the highway.

She also didn't remember how she fell asleep in his truck and how he gave her twenty minutes more to sleep even after they already arrived at her hotel.

She didn't need to know that anyway.

-

While driving on their way to the sanctuary, Chae Yoon slowly tells him something —in a whisper— that he had to lean a little closer just to hear it better.

"I'm sorry."

"Hm? What are you sorry about?"

"About.. last night," she mumbles.