| Fan Fiction |
by Isa
Heawon dragged her into the Old Navy, the only place
that was open at ten in the morning on a Saturday.
"Ani. Unni, come on. You can't wear jeans to the beach."
Heawon told her. "But..I.." Isa started to say.
But Heawon interrupted her, handing her three pairs of
shorts in a baby blue, black, or dark green khaki type.
"No buts." She said, pushing her to go to the dressing
rooms. "Fine." Isa said with a sigh and went into the
dressing room. After a few minutes, Heawon knocked on
the door. "Are you done?" She asked her. Isa opened
the door, wearing the pair of black shorts. "Wah. It
looks good." Heawon said. "Ah. They're too short. Don't
they have anything longer?" Isa said as she examined the
front and back view again. Heawon sighed. "Unni, they're
shorts. What do you expect? And they're not that short
compared to other ones." She said. "Well, I guess." Isa
said, unsure. "Plus, it's either these or those
pajama looking bermuda shorts." She pointed out.
"Okay, okay." Isa said. "Okay, get this one and
the blue ones." Heawon said. "Huh? Two pairs?" Isa said.
"Unni, before this, you didn't even own a pair of shorts!"
Heawon said. "Okay, okay." Isa said, and closed the
fitting room door again, changing back into her jeans.
Then she came out again, and she and Heawon walked to
the front register of the store and she paid for the
pairs of shorts. They quickly went back to Isa's house,
and they changed into clothes for the beach. Isa wore
her black shorts, and a graphic t-shirt and platform flip
flops. Heawon wore pearlescent blue shorts and a gray
tanktop and flipflops as well. Then they drove over to
the beach. The rest of their friends were running late
so they crossed the street, to walk around the place
where restaurants and shopping centers were. They
stopped at Forever 21, and browsed through the clothing
racks for awhile, then they went to Starbucks and got
iced mochas. They were walking down the sidewalk, when
Isa suddenly stopped, and Heawon looked at her confused.
"Unni what?" She said. Isa said nothing at first but
then. "Isn't that uh.." She started to say, but pointed
in front of them. Heawon glanced where she was pointing
and her eyes widened as well, but then said. "Come on
Unni. Let's ask for autographs!" She said excitedly.
"What? N-No. I'm fine really. We should get going."
She said and started to turn around. "Aish. Unni. Really."
Heawon said, stopping her and pushing her forward to
go towards the group of six guys. She tried to drag
her feet on the ground, to make it hard for Heawon to push
her, but it was hard to do with platform heels. Soon
she found herself in front of the group. The guys looked
at her and Heawon surprised. Isa said nothing and just
looked at them, speechless, so Heawon cut in. She
started talking to them in Korean. And the guys nodded,
then Heawon turned to her. "Unni, a few of them do
speak English." She reminded her. "Huh? Oh really?"
She said, feigning ignorance. Heawon smiled at the guys.
"She's acting like she doeesn't know this but she
really went to wikipedia to find out about you guys
and mmmph.." Heawon said as Isa quickly clamped a hand
over her friend's mouth to silence her. She smiled
at the five, sheepishly. "Ehe. Tweens these days.
No idea what she's talking about. Well, we should go
now bye." Isa said quickly to them, and turned around
and removed her hand from Heawon's mouth as soon as they
were a few feet away from the guys. And she started to
quickly walk down the sidewalk, as Heawon did the
same, not looking pleased. "Unni, what did you do
that for?" She asked her. "Dongseng, you were starting
to tell them that I researched about them on wikipedia?"
Isa said. "So? I bet they'd be happy to know that, seeing
as they're not exactly as popular as SHINee." Heawon
pointed out. "They're U-Kiss. I know. But gah, what if
they think I'm slutty now? Of all the days I had to
wear these shorts.. really.." Isa trailed off.
"YAH! UNNI! SERIOUSLY! STOP DOING THAT! THEY DON'T CARE
THAT YOU'RE WEARING SHORTS THAT AREN'T EVEN THAT SHORT!"
Heawon scolded her. Isa was taken aback. "You're right
dongseng. We should go to the beach now to see if
Gyuri unni and Nicole are there yet." She told her.
Heawon nodded and they walked over to the beach.
Sure enough Gyuri and Nicole were waiting at
one of the benches near the sand. They got up when
they saw the two girls coming towards them. "Unni!"
"Nicole!" Isa and Heawon said to them, and exchanged
hugs. "Hey, dongseng you're wearing shorts?" Gyuri
said, surprised. Isa sighed and looked at Heawon.
"Heawon dragged me this morning to get some. Couldn't
I have just worn jeans?" Isa told Gyuri. Both she
and Nicole looked at her as if she was crazy.
"To the beach? No. It looks okay. Although your legs
are a little pale." Gyuri said. Isa nodded. "I know.
Guess that's what happens when you wear jeans for
a long time." Isa said. They nodded, and the four
set out towels on the sand, and just basked in the
sun for awhile, while talking.
"You won't guess who we ran into on the boardwalk."
Heawon told Gyuri and Nicole. They turned to face Heawon
as Isa groaned, they glanced at her. "Ignore that. So,
we ran into Soohyun oppa, Kevin oppa, KiBum oppa, Dongho
oppa, Sander oppa and Eli oppa." Heawon told them.
"You ran into U-Kiss?" Gyuri asked. Heawon nodded.
"I wonder what they're doing here. Oh, probably they've
been not getting enough popularity lately, so their
manager told them, to take a break." Nicole said.
"Dongseng." Gyuri said. "What? It's true." Nicole said.
"Anyways, so Unni and I were walking down the boardwalk,
and she was the first to spot them, and so I had to
drag her over to them, and she froze up. Until I started
to say about how she'd researched them on wikipedia,
and then she started to talk and told them we had to
go." Heawon explained. Isa groaned and placed a wide
brimmed hat over her face. Nicole and Gyuri glanced
at her. "Ooh, we know why she froze up." Gyuri
said. Isa laid there, silent, waiting for the teasing
to begin. "Uh huh. Unni has a crush on someone there.
Gyuri Unni, should we start singing Honey?" Nicole
said with a smile. "Ani!" Isa said quickly, sitting up
right, the hat falling off her face. Nicole, Gyuri,
and Heawon burst out laughing. Isa just pouted at
them. "Aw, dongseng, we're just teasing." Gyuri
said. "I know." Isa said, and they laid back down
on their towels in silence, just letting the suns rays
warm them.
After awhile, they got up, picking up their towels
and walked to the boardwalk for lunch. They went into
BJ's restaurant for lunch. A waitress directed them to
a booth at the back of the restaurant, but then stopped.
"Oh, I thought there was another available booth. But
there is another booth with room here. If these gentlemen
wouldn't mind sitting with you ladies. I'm very sorry
for the inconvenience." The waitress said and led them
to a long booth, and sure enough, U-Kiss was sitting
there. The guys looked at them, surprised. Isa's
eyes widened. Heawon nudged her to say something,
Isa only nudged her back. Gyuri spoke up for them.
"Hi. Do you mind if we sit here? There're no other
tables available." She told the guys. The guys nodded
and gestured for them to sit down, and Heawon nudged
Isa to move into the booth first, causing her to slide
and shoulder bump Eli. "Sorry." Isa said. "It's fine."
He said in english. Then Heawon, Gyuri and Nicole
slid into the booth as well. They all ordered, and
the group was talking. Isa just watched them talking.
But Heawon nudged her to say something. "Uh, so
what brings you guys here?" She said. "Well, as you
guys probably know, our popularity rate, isn't exactly
that high. So our manager decided to give us a break,
and we're here for a few months, and maybe we'll
try doing our music here in the states." Eli said.
Isa, Gyuri, and Heawon nodded. "I knew it!" Nicole
said. The guys looked at her, surprised. "I mean, ehe.
Sorry." She said. Isa, Gyuri and Heawon, smiled, shaking
their heads at their friend. Their food arrived, appetizer
of avocado, bacon, wrapped in wonton wrappers, and dipped
in a choice of ranch or some other kind of spicy sauce,
and a large deep dish pizze, of italian sausage, tomatoes,
green bell peppers, onions, pepperoni, and cheese, with
a thick crust. They ate their food and then split
the bill in half. "We want to pay." The guys said.
The girls shook their heads. "It's fine. Really we
wouldn't feel right letting you pay for us, after all
it's your break here." The girls said.
And the guys relented and the girls paid their share,
and the guys paid their share, and they left the
restaurant, saying goodbye. The four girls walked down
the sidewalk, side by side. "Dongseng are you blushing?"
Gyuri said, glancing at Isa who's face was turning pink.
"N-No. I'm just a little sunburned." She said defensively.
The other three girls exchanged glances. "Okay." They
said in a sing song voice. "Must be her earlier skin ship
with a certain someone." Nicole said with a smile.
Isa groaned in frustration and embarassment.
[Flashback]
The waiter handed them their menus and they all
glanced at the different choices. Isa was busy glancing
at the menu, and without glancing away from her menu,
extended her left arm out, to grab her water, but
instead of feeling a cold glass of water, she felt
her fingers clasp over someone's hand. She looked away
from her menu, and her eyes widened, as she met Eli's
gaze, realizing she accidentally, clasped her hand over
his, grabbing for the wrong water. She quickly let go.
"Oops. Sorry." She said, embarrased. The other girls
and guys glanced at her. "Unni, your water is to your
right." Heawon told her. "Oh right." Isa said, remembering
wanting to smack herself on the forehead. And
everyone went back to reading their menus.
[End of flashback}
"Dongseng, dongseng." Gyuri called, waving her hand
in front of Isa's face, until she snapped out of her
reverie. "Huh?" Isa said. "We've been calling you for
the past minute, if you wanted to go to the movies."
Gyuri explained. "Oh, sorry unni." Isa said to her.
"She's probably thinking of her skin ship earlier."
Heawon said. Isa looked at her. "No." She said.
The three girls smiled. "Well, wanna watch 17 Again?"
Nicole suggested. Isa nodded. And they went to the
movie theater and bought tickets for the 1:00 showing
of 17 again. They went into the theater, and bought
a large tub of buttered popcorn to share, and four
small I-C cherry slushies. They then sat down at a bench
near some of the arcade games in the theater, since
it was stil early. They sat there, talking, when Soohyun,
Eli, Sander, KiBum, Kevin and Dongho walked in as the
ticketman, took their tickets, ripping one part in half.
And giving them the other half. "You've got to be kidding
me." Isa said and quickly stood up, walking around
the corner, to go the bathroom. Heawon, Gyuri
and Nicole sighed. The guys spotted the three on
the bench and walked over to them. "Hey, Heawon,
Nicole, Gyuri nuna. Where's Isa?" Eli asked.
"She had to go to the bathroom. What are you guys
watching?" Heawon asked them. "The Knowing."
Kevin answered. "Oh." Nicole said, nodding.
"And you guys?" Sander asked. "17 Again." Gyuri
said. "With Zac Efron?" Soohyun said, as he and
the rest of the guys raised their eyebrows.
"Yah. He is hot okay?" Nicole said. The guys shrugged.
"Okay, well we'll see you guys later." Eli said and
he and the rest of the guys turned around, walking to
the theater room where The Knowing was showing. Isa
came back, looking around. "Are they gone?" She
asked her friends. The three girls looked at her.
Making a tsk tsk sound, shaking their heads
at her. "What?" She said as she sat down beside
them. "Aigoo. Unni. Really." Heawon said in dissaproval.
"Eli asked where you were." Nicole said with a smirk,
moving side to side slightly on the bench.
"Really?" Isa said, her eyes lighting up. The friends
looked at her, amused. "I mean, so? Come on. It's
going to start soon." She said quickly gettting up
from the bench and walking over to the theater room
where 17 Again was showing. The three friends got
up following after, smiles on their faces, at their
friend's denial. They went inside and sat down.
After about two hours, the movie was over. They
came out of the theater, talking about it. "Hmm. It
was okay." Gyuri said. "Yeah. It was funny but some
parts were a bit iffy." Nicole said. Heawon and
Isa nodded. "That was funny though when his wife
was squishing his face and was like 'you look so much
like my husband'." Heawon said. The three other girls
nodded. "What about you Unni? What did you think?"
Nicole asked her. "Well,.." Isa said, just getting
started. "Here we go." The three friends said.
"What? So, I think there were some good points in it.
Like how he saves his daughter from dating that guy
who's picking on her younger brother. I think, the
girl should've been more aware, that dating that guy
wasn't the best choice. She should've dated someone
who was nice, considerate, and maybe speak more
than one language,.." She continued talking. "Unni."
Heawon said to her warningly, but she kept going on.
"And maybe someone who knows self-defense..." Isa
continued. "Unni." Heawon warned her for the second
time. "And kinda shy at times, but can be funny.."
Isa continued. "Unni." Heawon warned her for the third
time and Isa finally stopped her bantering. "What?"
She said, slightly frustrated she lost her train of
thought. Heawon pointed behind her. Isa turned around
to find the six U-Kiss members, looking at her,
surprised. Her mouth opened, slightly, in shock.
And she started to turn pink. "That's quite a guy
you're describing there dongseng." Sander said in
english to her. She had basically described Eli
in detail, and she just wanted to crawl under a rock.
"Ehehe. Yeah. How was the movie?" She asked them,
changing the subject. "It was good." Sander said.
Isa didn't even dare look at Eli. "That's good. We
have to get going now." Isa said quickly and turned
back around, and she, Gyuri, Heawon, and Nicole
left the theater. "Oh my god" Isa said, groaning,
as she and the other girls walked out of the boardwalk,
to walk to Heawon's house. Heawon patted her on the
shoulder sympathetically. "It's okay Unni. Maybe
they don't know who you're talking about?" Heawon
suggested. "She basically said everything about him,
except his name." Nicole pointed out. "Unni. You're
not helping." Heawon said. Isa sighed. "Nicole's right.
Ah. This is so embarrasing." Isa said. "Dongseng. It's
okay. They'll forget about it. I'm sure." Gyuri said
encouragingly. "I hope you're right Unni." Isa said
as they made it to Heawon's house.
Weeks passed by, and they kept running into the
U-Kiss members. Apparently, the hotel that the guys
were staying at, was close by to the girls' neighborhood.
At first, Isa was still embarrased about what she said
at the theaters, but soon tried her best to forget about
it. She talked to the guys more, and she could relate to
Eli's stories about growing up in the states and having
to move back to Korea for when he was scouted into
the U-Kiss group. He was also pretty funny, after he
was more comfortable with people, and he wasn't that shy
anymore. Isa wondered if she laughed more than the other
girls at his jokes. She hoped not. She wanted him and
the guys to forget her words at the theater, the weeks
before.
"Are you sure, there's nothing we can do doctor?" Isa
asked her optamologist. He shook his head. "I'm sorry.
There's only so many surgeries you can have to save your
vision. Your optical nerves are slowly damaging
completely." He told her. Isa nodded, in disbelief.
"Thank you for telling me doctor. How much longer do
I have?" She asked him, as she clutched onto a few
pieces of tissue, that she had wiped her eyes with
earlier. The doctor sighed. "I'd say at this rate,
by the end of the week, you'll be completely blind."
He said sadly. She nodded, a few tears falling down
her face. "I'm very sorry." He said again. She shook
her head, wiping away her tears with the tissue.
"It's alright doctor. You've done more than enough.
If I hadn't gone through those two surgeries three years
ago, I would have gone completely blind sooner. Thank
you doctor." She told him, still grateful. He nodded,
sad for his young patient. Usually this wouldn't happen
to people so young, but the disease ran in her family.
Glaucoma was a hereditary disease, and they had caught
it late. She got up from the chair, thanking him and
left the office.
Later on that evening, Isa was at California
Pizza Kitchen, with Heawon, Gyuri and Nicole, and
the guys, trying to keep a straight face on, like
nothing happened. They ate and talked, but Eli could
sense something was wrong. Gyuri, Nicole, went to
the ladies room, while the other guys went to
the front of the restaurant to get cheesecake to go.
Isa sat there, in silence, running her pointer finger
across the wet ring that was left, by her water glass.
"Isa." Eli called to her. She glanced up at him from
across the table. "Deh oppa?" She said. "What's going
on?" He asked her. She tensed up slightly. "What do
you mean?" She said, avoiding his gaze. "Look at me.
I know something's wrong." He said. She shook her
head. "Why can't you just tell me?" He asked her. She
shook her head again. "I can't." She said and ran out
of the restaurant. He sighed and ran after her, as
the girls were coming back from the restroom, confused.
And the guys watched him run out of the front of the
restaurant, while they were picking out cheesecake
to take back to the hotel. "What's going on? We just
saw Eli oppa run out? And Isa unni left also." Heawon
asked, Kevin as she and the other girls had walked to
the front of the restaurant. The guys shrugged.
[Play] To Some Degree of Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uThNOxLsdg&feature=related
Isa continued running, but she grew tired and started
to slow down, as she jogged across the parking lot.
He quickly caught up to her, grabbing her by the shoulders,
turning her around to face him. "What is it that you
just can't seem to tell me?" He asked her, catching his
breath. She looked up at him, her eyes starting to
water with a look of remorse and sadness. "I'm losing
the rest of my vision oppa." She said. He looked at
her in disbelief. "What do you mean, the rest of
your vision?" He asked her. She sighed and they sat down
at a bench outside of the restaurant. "I never told
any of you guys, but I have glaucoma, I lost some of
my vision in my left eye already, although it doesn't
look like it. I went to the doctor earlier and he
said, I'm going to completely go blind soon." She
said, tears starting to fall down her face.
"It can't be. Isn't there anything you can do?" He
asked her. She shook her head. "I've already had
surgeries in both eyes. I can't do anything to stop
the damage to my optical nerves anymore." She said
sadly. He looked at her, in remorse. "You'll get
through this. Heawon, Gyuri nuna, Nicole, the guys
and I will be here for you." He said reassuringly.
She sniffed, glancing up at him, as he put an arm
around her shoulder, in sympathy. "And why would you
do that?" She asked him. He glanced back at her,
the intensity of his eyes, seemed to burn a hole through
her heart, but she couldn't look away. "Because I like
you." He said firmly. Her mouth opened, in surprise,
but then she quickly closed it. She looked at him for
a moment, his eyes were still giving her that piercing
glance, as he scooted closer to her on the bench, his
face leaning towards her. She soon found herself closing
her eyes, but then quickly opened them, and backed away
from him on the bench, as he opened his eyes, with
an expression of hurt.
"I, I'm sorry oppa."
She said, gently removing his grasp around her shoulder.
She got up and quickly walked away, hailing a taxi.
It stopped and drove her back to her house. Eli
sat there, dejected. "Oppa! What are you doing out
here? Where's Unni?" Heawon asked, as she, Gyuri,
Nicole, and the guys walked out of the restaurant to
where he sat. Eli looked at the group. "She left."
He said simply. THe girls looked at each other,
but realized why she left.
The following day, he went over to Isa's house, but
was surprised to see a For Sale sign. And the house
looked empty. He called up Gyuri. "Nuna. Where's Isa?"
He asked her. He heard her sigh on the other end of
the line. "I'm sorry dongseng, she's gone." She told
him. Eli's eyes widened. "Gone?" He asked. "She moved
to another city, where there's a special school for her,
now that she's losing her vison completely." She told
him. "Nuna. Please. tell me where she went." He
asked her. "I'm sorry dongseng. It'll just hurt her
more." She said, then hung up. Eli sighed, throwing
his cellphone down on the front lawn. But then he spotted
an envelop tucked in the mail slot of the front door
of Isa's house. He walked over and pulled it out of
the slot. It had his name on it. He opened it and started
to read. He noticed that the writing was starting to
look shaky, as if she couldn't see clearly when she wrote
it.
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Eli oppa,
I'm sorry I left you like that. But you don't want to
get involved with me. There are too many hassles to deal
with, now that I'm losing the rest of my vision. I'm
very grateful to have met you. You've been so kind,
smart, funny, making me laugh when I needed to. (Yes,
I admit, I was talking about you at the theater that
one day) And I'm both happy and sad to know that you
like me. I do share the same feelings that you have oppa,
I do like you, but I can't be with you. What would
your fans think, if you started going out with a blind
girl? I'm sorry for not telling you about my condition
sooner, but this is for the best. Please forget about
me.
-Isa
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Eli held back his tears. How could she possibly
think that it was for the best? He folded the letter
placing it back into the envelope, and walking back
to the U-Kiss apartment. But he continued to call
Gyuri, Nicole and Heawon, asking them where Isa was,
as the week slowly passed by. Eli was in his room,
sitting at his desk, dialing up Heawon again, when
Kevin walked in. "Hyung. It's no use. She doesn't
want to see you." Kevin told him, and walked out
of the room, sorry for his older friend. Eli
ignored him and received Heawon's voice mail.
He was about to leave a message, when the doorbell
to the front of their apartment rang. He hung up
and walked to open the front door, and was surprised
to see Heawon, standing there. "Dongseng." He
said, surprised. "Oppa, here." She said, placing a
small slip of paper with an address scrawled on it, in
the palm of his hand. He glanced at it. "What's this?"
He asked her. "Isa unni's new address." She said.
"But I thought you guys didn't want me to find her."
He told her. She shook her head. "Unni didn't want
you to find her. But she needs you. She just doesn't
want to admit it. So go." She said with a smile.
Eli stood there, dumbfounded. "Go oppa!" She said,
pulling him out of the apartment. He quickly left
the apartment complex, and drove to the address that
Heawon had given him. It was about a half hour drive,
and he parked at the sidewalk of a two story,
white house. He rang the doorbell, and no one answered.
After ringing it a few more times, he figured no one
was home. He walked down the sidewalk, dejected again.
He came across the neighborhood park, and saw Isa
sitting at a bench, looking straight ahead, with
a golden retreiver laying on the ground beside her,
as her seeing eye dog. Eli walked quietly towards the
bench and sat down. She felt a shift of movement on
the bench. "Who's there?" She said. He placed his hand
over her left hand. She tensed up. "It's me." He
said. She quickly moved her head to the left, at
the sound of his voice. "O-oppa?" She said, surprised.
"Yeah." He said. She quickly removed her hand out of
his grasp. "You shouldn't be here." She said, looking
straight ahead again. "Am I really not supposed to
be here? Tell me. Do you really not want me here? Am
I just some guy you had a crush on, but can't expect
me to be here for you? Do you really think I'm that
superficicial to care if you're blind now?" He asked
her, hurt in his voice. She sighed, shaking her
head. "No. You're not oppa. But I told you, we can't
be together. You have to listen to me." She told him
sadly, pleading with him, as she turned to face him
again. "Well, I don't think I can do that." He said,
leaning forward until she felt his lips press softly
onto her own.
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Isabel Santos Copyright 2009.
All rights reserved.