✓Crotchet || MCND Castle J

Chapter 32 - Look At Me

Minji's POV

Trust me on this, he said. Trust. It's all about that with people, isn't it? It's not about being cautious of everyone to know who you really can trust. You have to give your trust and it's up to them whether they'll break it or keep it, and you always have to hope for the latter. And if they did keep it, then you finally found the right people.

I plumped down my bed after the call and stared at the plain white ceiling. I'm going to meet Mimi outside the broadcasting station in a couple of hours and I'm going to tell her everything. I'm going to start making it right with one person at a time.

A beep from my phone interrupted me from my thoughts. It's an email. I sat down abruptly when I saw that it's from the literary competition. I've completely forgotten about it. I guess the results are released today.

I took a deep breath before opening the message and I froze after I read everything. I got disqualified. It says I didn't follow through with their mechanics. I didn't even know there is one. I'm not sure how to feel about it. It wasn't the result I was expecting but, weirdly, I'm not feeling any kind of disappointment. It's not really what I want anyway so it's easy to let it go. What I want right now is to make sure my friends know that I trust them, and that goes with me feeling relaxed about admitting it.

*****

I took a cab to the broadcasting station an hour later. I still don't know how to start my conversation with Mimi, but I was told it's better to let the words come as you speak because that will make it more natural and sincere.

There's a large open cemented area in front of the building. There aren't many people around except for the group gathered at one side. I walked past them and across the area and found the street bench Mimi was talking about. She told me to meet her on one of them and the only available bench is the one closest to the crowd. It's still a good few meters away from them, but it's close enough to hear the people talking with microphones.

As I sat, the group clapped and cheered so loud. That's when I noticed that they were holding banners of some sort and that the people with microphones, who were also standing on a small podium, were idols. They were just communicating with their fans, laughing and talking. I imagined Seongjun standing right there among them and I was immediately stirred by the fact that he's right there somewhere inside the building. I wonder what he's doing right now.

I shook off the thought and checked the time on my phone. Mimi is already a few minutes late and she hasn't texted me yet. I looked around, hoping to see her walking towards me but she isn't anywhere near. I've been glancing back and forth between my phone and the surrounding area for a solid thirty minutes when I finally considered going home. But I thought, she wouldn't do this to me. I have to trust her because if something went wrong, she would've texted me. Right? Maybe I heard the time wrong and our meeting wouldn't be in another hour, or maybe she was waiting for me on another bench.

I glanced at the people on the other benches surrounding the lot. None of them was her. My phone wiggles in my hand as I restlessly tap on it with my fingertips. I'm trying to think positively about this, but my instinct is telling me to leave. The bitter feeling slowly consumes me as I sat there waiting. She's not coming anymore and she doesn't seem to care informing me about it. My surroundings suddenly seemed to become empty. The group of people grew quieter, no more high-pitched screams and chantings. She's not coming.

I decided to get a grip of myself, unable to stay there any longer. This isn't the first time this happened to me so I can easily pretend that I wasn't about to wholly open up with a person: the one friend I thought I could connect with.