Let's Not Fall In Love

Chapter 20

By the end of the week after Dara’s return, everything just sort of naturally fell back in to place. Which made Jiyong both happy and unhappy. She was back home and that alone lifted him up from the dump he was in for the past weeks. Breakfast for the days that she was home once again gave a kick to his mornings. The end of a work day was something he looked forward to because he was no longer going home to an empty house.

The weeks when Dara went MIA, he would work until the wee hours of the morning doing stuff that he could do the following day to the horror of his staff. If he stayed they stayed. They didn’t have the guts to ask their dragon of a boss if they could go home when he was so obviously up to his neck with paperwork. Anyone attempting to approach him unnecessarily would be greeted alternatively by an arrogant lift of an eyebrow or a snarly “What?”. Everyone tried to steer clear of him in the hallways. It was difficult facing your boss and greeting him with a ‘Good morning’ when all you’ll get in return is a stare down his nose and a tart reply of ‘What’s good in the morning?’

But now that Dara’s back he had gone back to his senses. The morning after Dara came home he apologized for being an asshole to his staff for the past weeks. The whole office stared at him as he apologized not quite believing their ears. It was one for the books. The Dragon was apologizing and to top it all off he compensated everyone by giving them a long weekend off and a bonus for their overtime work. The long hours they had put in had set them ahead with the workload and he knew the staff could do with some needed rest. Otherwise he’d end up with a stack of resignation letters on his desk.

So it was on the late afternoon of the Friday when he gave the whole office a long weekend off that he came home once again to find the television on. He was excited because that meant Dara was home and maybe now he could get the chance to talk to her. The cause of his unhappiness was that he was still back to square one with Dara. For the whole week during the days that she wasn’t on 24 hour duty shifts, she would arrive late claiming to be attending all sorts of round table discussions and journal club meetings. He was going crazy. He wanted… No, scratch that. He needed to talk to her.

“Movie night?” He confirmed as he passed by her. She didn’t even look up at him but just went on staring at the screen, acknowledging him with a thumbs up. On his way up she yelled, “I ordered Chinese. Would you grab my wallet on your way down so I could pay the delivery guy later?”

“Okay,” he yelled back. He sprinted towards his room, showered quickly and swiftly changed into more comfortable clothes.

On his way down, the doorbell went off. “Would you please get that, Ji. Its probably the food.” He frowned as he continued on to the front door. Her words were spoken in a suspiciously nasal voice and her last sentence was followed by an almost imperceptible sniffle. ‘Is she crying?’ He wondered. He distractedly paid off the delivery guy and hurriedly went towards the living room to check on her.

True enough his suspicion was right. There huddled beneath the blanket was a sniveling, snot-nosed, teary eyed Dara with an almost empty box of tissues and a mountain of crumpled used tissues beside her. He looked at the TV. She was hooked on to the net, surfing videos on YT. He was confused. She was watching some sort of video about someone learning how to dance. How in the hell would a dance video make her cry this much? For the life of him he could not make the two things connect. Times like this he wish he had two X chromosomes. His Y chromosome is pretty much useless when it comes to dealing with crying, incoherent ladies.

He approached and sat beside her, after setting the takeout boxes at the coffee table. “Um, Dee,” he paused. He didn’t know what to say. His girl was crying and he didn’t know why. Was it something he did? Or was it something he didn’t do? Living with her for forever taught him one thing. To never assume.

She turned red-rimmed eyes at him. Her mouth was quivering. He gathered her into his arms and rubbed her back in comfort. She bawled into his chest. She was saying something or she was trying to between her sobs but he couldn’t make sense of it. He was lost. He didn’t know what to say or do. After a short while her sobs quieted down to a sniff and a hiccup but the tears were still on.

She rarely cried like this. The last time she did was when her grandfather died and that was like a decade ago. “Hey, you’ve got to stop. Take deep breaths. I’ll do anything you want, within reason of course, if you promise to try and calm down.” He said in his most soothing voice.

“Anything?” The waterworks paused and an almost imperceptible gleam of mischief could be seen from her eyes.

“Oh no. I know what you’re thinking. I’m not waiving my third wish for you.” He wagged his index finger at her. She rolled her eyes at him, grabbed his hand and bit on the offending finger. “Ow! Ow! Ow!”

“It didn’t even bleed. You’re such a baby.” She sneered at him.

“You’re calling me a baby?” He exclaimed in indignation. “Who between the two of us was bawling like a snotty kid just now?”

“I’m a girl. I bleed and have freaking stomach cramps every month and I can have PMS. I’m entitled to cry every now and then whenever I want to.” She unreasonably reasoned as she delved through the take out boxes. “What about you? Just a teeny little nibble and you’re yelping like an injured puppy.” She scoffed at him.

‘How did the conversation turn to this?’ Jiyong couldn’t help but be amazed at the 180 degree turn of the conversation. She went from depressed to annoyed with just a flick of a finger.

He shoved his finger towards her nose. “Nibbles don’t leave teeth marks, you rabid rabbit!”

“If you don’t remove your finger from my face you’re going to get more than just teeth marks, you lizard of a man!” She retorted. “I stopped crying. You promised you’d do me one favor.”

He groaned. He was going to regret making that offer. He reluctantly nodded his head. “Remember, only within reason.”

“Okay. Since you won’t waive your third wish, just waive your choice for tonight’s movie then.” She grinned crazily at him.

“Fuck, no.” He blurted out in frustration. Why does she always end up winning on movie nights?

“Hell, yeah!” She exclaimed in triumph. She turned her back on him and tinkered with the remote. He groaned when he saw the playlist. It was horror documentaries again!

Dara was grateful that she was able to manipulate the conversation into safer waters. She knew he wanted to talk to her about something. He’d been trying to corner her the past few days. She wasn’t ready for an emotionally charged conversation and had been avoiding him all week but she had ran out of conferences to go to and was left with no choice but to go home early today.

The transformational video thatvshe was watching as Jiyong arrived struck a chord in her and before she knew it she was crying and she couldn’t make herself stop. Ashley, in the video, was trying to overcome her social awkwardness through dancing and Dara couldn’t help but relate with her. Dara had always felt awkward.

Jiyong had always been her best friend but even he could sometimes even make her feel awkward. In fact, she envied Jiyong. She knew that he was inwardly shy but he could turn on a different aura of confidence and arrogance when the need arises. She has none of that ability except when she’s in her work environment but to extend that confidence in her self outside of her work sphere had always been impossible for her. Ashley gained confidence through her dancing. Watching the video made Dara want the same for herself.

Her crying wasn’t orchestrated. She rarely cried. She abhorred crying. She hated girls who use crying as a manipulative tool but just now she had sort of shamelessly worked her tears to her advantage. She was ashamed of herself for crying like a baby initially but since it already happened and she couldn’t hide it from Jiyong she took the opportunity to distract him from trying to talk to her.

As she played the video on and cranked up the volume to an acceptable level she breathed a silent sigh of relief because she had another day of reprieve. It was short-lived, though. As she sipped groggily from her steaming cup of coffee the following morning Jiyong casually asked, “You’re off duty tomorrow, right?”

She automatically said, “Yes. Thank God. I finally get a free weekend.”

“Good.” Jiyong said with a smile. “Tomorrow be ready at 5am.”

“Five am? Why?” She asked. “I’m not waking up at 5am unless it’s a life and death situation. No way.”

“You and me spend twenty four hours together starting at 5am tomorrow. That’s my third wish.” Jiyong smilingly said. Seeing her slack-jawed expression he said, “You promised, remember?”

She moved her mouth as if to say something but her mind was blank. The coffee did not reach her brain yet. Jiyong reached out to close her mouth. “You look like a goldfish when you move your mouth like that.” She slapped his hand from off her chin.

“I hate you, Kwon Jiyong.” Dara finally found her voice.

“We both know you love me, Dee.” He winked at her and went on to prepare breakfast as usual, whistling an irritatingly happy tune.

Dara’s mind was still groggy with sleep and she wanted to kick Jiyong’s perky butt in retaliation. She did not just think his butt was perky, right? What was wrong with her? He just dropped his bomb of a third wish and she could still get distracted by his cute ass. Ugh! His dancing behind was scrambling her brains and it’s unnatural how he could have that much energy even before he finished his first cup of coffee.  Nothing makes much sense yet to Dara.

Jiyong slid in front of Dara a plate of fluffy scrambled eggs, sliced fresh tomatoes, buttered toast. He then efficiently refilled her cup of coffee. “Eat up. Perk up. Drink up.”

Seriously that much happiness should be banned before 8am. Dara groaned and planted her face on the kitchen counter mumbling, “I definitely hate mornings!”