Chocolate Hearts | Jongin

02. A Friend and a Request

Chocolate Hearts
Chapter Two
A Friend and a Request

Nari blinked once, rubbed her eyes, pinched her arm. Because this surely wasn't happening. Surely she was seeing things, hearing things, because Kim Jongdae surely wasn't in the same park as me her had heard her play and was talking to her. What were the chances? Next to zero. But it had somehow happened and Nari wasn't about to believe it so quickly.

But when she opened her eyes he was there, looking at her, smiling at her just like he used to when they were younger. He was real, he was in front of her by some strange working of fate.

Jongdae made his way over and Nari quickly moved her guitar, propping it up between her legs so Jongdae could sit next to her, their shoulders almost touching. It has been so long and the many years could have put strain on their relationship and being in such close proximity to each other, but when Jongdae smiled his usual bright smile, Nari found her lips curbing up into the exact same thing.

"It's been a while hasn't it, Sugar Rush?" he said, grinning lopsidedly at her.

Nari snorted. "A while? Try a few years." But she was teasing, and she couldn't believe how easily she was slipping back into their usual conversation, as though their years apart had only been mere seconds. And his use of his old nickname for her brought the blood rushing to her cheeks. She'd gained that nickname from the way she used to run around the kitchen baking sweets, sometimes with several projects on at once. Nari had a nickname for him as well though it was, in her opinion, a lot lamer - Superstar wasn't nearly as interesting as Sugar Rush.

Jongdae was famous now, a member of Exo. She thought that he might have changed, but she was surprised how he was almost acting the same around her as he was all those years ago.

Jongdae laughed and sat beside her and leaned back, like this was something that happened everyday. "When I heard the song, I knew it was you," he said. "Nari's song."

"You remembered that?"

"I heard you play that song almost every day."

"Oh, yeah." Nari smiled wryly, picking her guitar from the ground and placing it on her lap, careful to avoid hitting Jongdae. Somehow, awkwardly, she managed to position her guitar on her knees that was somewhat comfortable. She played a few of the notes, her fingers dancing across the strings. "I still love it."

Tears by SNSD was her favourite song to play on guitar, and had been the first one, too. It had helped her through a difficult time, not necessarily because the lyrics matched her situation, but the emotion. It had been the first time Nari had truly been able to express how she felt without crying or screaming in front of her brother and father, though she doubted they had ever gotten the message she'd been trying to convey for years.

Over time she had come to accept her situation, but by then the song has become truly personal to her. It was almost a part of her. She hadn't been able to stop playing. It would always remain Nari's song, to her and to Jongdae. Nari frowned, wondering if Jongdae had ever thought of her when the radio turned on and that song started to play.

Well, if he still remembered it now... he probably would have.

"Sorry we haven't been in contact recently. It's been hectic."

"I can imagine, Superstar. You're really making a name for yourself. But you could've made time for your best friend."

"Hey, I was coming down to visit you, actually. Is that patisserie of yours still going?"

"Yeah. It's been open since late January last year, and business has been going smoothly." Nari narrowed her eyes. "I've told you all of this before, when it first opened."