A Photograph's Consequence

Chapter 14: The Aftermath

Chapter 14: The Aftermath

Chorong's POV

"Where is it?! I can't find it anywhere, It was supposed to be in my bag... Oh no, did I lose it?"

I woke up on Saturday morning to the nagging of Eunji's voice echoing through my house. Her room was right next to mine and the walls weren't soundproof  . Yes, I heard every sound, every vibration, every echo, every movement I felt, and trust me, it drives you insane at some point.

I peeked under my covers to see the clock on my desk turn to seven. I groaned, "Ugh Euji!!!" I yelled and rolled out of bed, heading straight for her room. 

I stared at the mess before me and it was really messy. Eunji is the type to clean everything and then clean some more and then move onto the next room to clean SOME MORE. So this was definitely new seeing her room in this state.

"Why does your room look like a giant nest in here?" I raised my eyes brows and bent down to pick up a very familiar brown jacket.

"Isn't this mine?" I ask her and she grabs it off me.

"No, I bought the exact same for Christmas, remember?" she said and threw it back in the pile of clothes and kept looking through her drawers, ignoring me.

She looked troubled like she didn't have any sleep. Her hair was a mess and her clothes all looked scruffy. She went through each drawer at a time looking through them intently like she might have missed something.

Her room though was something else. It had clothes all scattered and her beddings weren't even folded. Her cupboards and drawers were all open and things were hanging out from them. I didn't know she had this much stuff.

I guess some boxes tucked away in the corner of her room belonged to her parents. Oh, how I wish I could comfort her on August 30th every year. We leave the house to her and she tears it apart crying for her parents to return.

Then the next day, she cleans it up and acted as if nothing happened.

"What are you looking for?" I finally ask and she turns to me. "My black notebook, the NOTEBOOK," she emphasis the last bit. My eyes suddenly grew out of their sockets, not that notebook. I knew about it, but Eunji forbid me to ever ask about it or look through it, it'd be a death wish basically. 

I turned to help her keep on looking through her drawers. "No not that, anything but that," I tell her and she helps me in the search of her notebook.

Now I know what you're thinking. What's so important about it? Now let me tell you, Eunji's whole life is in that notebook. It's practically her diary she doesn't let anyone read not even me. The last time she found out I was snooping through it- I was only twelve and curiosity killed me, Eunji almost ran away from home. She was afraid that whatever was written in that book would expose her. And she didn't like that. 

After a while, I figured it was pointless to keep on looking so we both got dressed and headed to work. When we arrived at work, our boss told us that we had an event to cater for so we had to first prepare the food, pack the gear and make our way to the venue in one hour to set up. The first lot of workers were to go ahead and set up which was me and Eunji so we both jumped in the van and it took us there.

When the van came to a stop, I looked outside the window and froze. My heart was beating rapidly and I started to sweat in the van which had the air con on full blast. Eunji looked at me weirdly. "Why are you sweating frantically?" she asked and I pointed to the window.

She leaned over and looked out and swallowed the saliva in her throat.

The Park's Hotel.

Those massive letters stood out in the front of the building in gold or bronze, some sort of shade. The place where everything started and where we did some really bad stuff like take pictures in a VIP club that allowed no paparazzi in.

We both stepped out of the van that was parked on the side of the building. I grabbed a box and so did Eunji and we made our way into the building. "Don't worry, no one recognizes us, just chill will you?" I told Eunji. She was freaking me out even more with her bitting of that lip of hers.

Setting up took only thirty minutes in what was called the ballroom. We were called to the kitchen to get the introduction and prep work that needed to be done. I took the long way, couldn't be bothered to take the shortcut and risk getting seen.

I stepped out into the lobby when I spotted a familiar person walking in my direction. Jimin. I stood in my position unable to move. His pace quickened and before I knew it myself, I was turning around going the way I came back from.

I went through several doors and finally coming to the stairs I decided to take them and make my way to the ground floor, since I was on the second. I reached the ground floor in record time and peeked outside the door to see if I was in the clear.

When it was clear I stepped out and headed towards the kitchen which was past the elevator.

"Okay Chorong you can do this," I was prep talking myself. "Just keep your head down," I was insane or crazy or both. Either way, I needed to get to the kitchen before Jimin saw me.

Just past the elevator. I started speed walking leaving my hiding spot and across the foyer. I walked keeping my head down and was in time when I reached the elevator, the doors opened and Jimin stood there but that didn't stop me from walking faster.

Sadly, I was too slow and he grabbed my wrist pulling me in and shutting the doors. He held me by my wrist and when the elevator stopped a couple saw us together. To blend in Jimin bowed to them and put his arm around my waist pulling me closer to him.

I think it was to make it look like we were together. Talk about awkward. When we stopped on the eighth floor, the couple got off and we continued our journey up. I swear if this elevator keeps going up we'll end up on Mars.

"Please let me go, I have a job," I tried tugging out of his grasp but he was too strong.

"You have the right to remain silent," he said not looking at me or showing a slight emotion on his face. I didn't know what to do so I just went along with it. 

The elevator stopped on the roof floor and Jimin still holding on to my wrist which by the way was now burning with heat from his fist. We walked a few more floors before he led me out the door and onto the roof of the building.

He let go of me and turned to me.

We stayed there for a while starring at each other like the other person was going to disappear. He took a step forward which brought him at an arm's length.

"Was it you that day?" he asked. I didn't know what to say or how to answer. "What do you mean?" I asked.

He shook his head, "don't play dumb with me Chorong, the day at the club, it was you right?" he asked, his voice getting harsher.

"You don't understand, there was a misunderstanding-" he put his hand up to cut me off. I was trying to explain to him that I didn't mean to take those pictures and I swear that I didn't leak it to the press.

"I thought you were different," was all he said before glaring at me once more and walking off past me, shoving his cold shoulder into my petite figure. Leaving me standing there on the roof. Why couldn't he trust me? My heart sank at how our relationship just ended in a blink of an eye. I thought society's expectations would be the reason behind our break-up but no, it's merely because of a small trust issue. I was able to handle Jimin's cold shoulder before, but now that I have feelings for him, it hurts a lot more than I expected. 

My ankle's were now blistered and pink from walking around so much.

"You idiot Jimin, I liked you," I said before turning around and walking back in. Wiping off the stinging tears that were dripping down my cheeks. 

[End of Chapter Fourteen]