| Fan Fiction |
by SleepiiDreamer
The bike’s condition honestly wasn’t that bad. There was just a huge (and I meant HUGE) scratch on the side of it; nothing a good buffing job wouldn’t take care of. However, knowing my brother, Chang Min, he would definitely be livid, and I was correct.
“My baby!” Chang Min cried when we returned home. I had my arm around Jae’s shoulders and he had a hand around my waist to keep me up and balanced. Although I was limping and Jae had scratches all over him, Chang Min walked past the both of us and ran towards his prized possession. “What did you do to her?!”
“We’re fine, Chang Min. Really, don’t mind the scratches all over our bodies. You don’t have to worry about us.” Jae Joong said sarcastically as Chang Min demanded to know how we could have done something so impudent that involved damaging his bike.
“YOU guys are fine,” Chang Min sneered, surveying his bike, observing every aspect, “but my baby is not.”
“Your sister’s limping and your buddy look like he just lost a fight with a lawnmower and you’re worried about your bike? How can you still be so materialistic? A bit shallow of you, don’t you think?” I asked, watching my brother run his hands along the scratch on the bike, his face scrunched up in incredulity. Although his actions weren’t far off from what I had expected, I was still in disbelief.
“Don’t worry about it,” Jae Joong told me, leading me towards the house, “Let’s get some rest. We’ve been up all night.” It was true. The whole escapade took a couple of hours and it was four in the morning. Dawn would be breaking soon.
I nodded and allowed him to lead me back into the house, for I was too tired to be bothered by Chang Min’s annoying behavior. I was also too tired to notice that Jae Joong was showing another side of him to me; the caring side.
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For the next three weeks, I had to stay home to rest my ankle to make it heal faster. So that meant no school and no work. Chang Min and Jae Joong resumed to their classes in NYU as soon as the semester started. I should have gone along with them but it would be too much of a hassle to go to my classes with my crutches. Instead, my professors sent me my assignments via email. Therefore, I was confined to my house for the next three weeks.
It was boring, I had to admit, but Jae Joong would try his best to keep me from getting bored. I suspect he felt guilty for me being in such a state. He even went as far as letting me use his laptop, which he used to keep in touch with his friends in Seoul, when he went to class.
One day when I was sitting at home, flipping through the channels impassively, Yoo Chun had called me up and asked me what I was doing. I explained to him in exasperation about my condition and he asked me if Jae Joong’s laptop had a webcam. When I had found out that Jae Joong’s laptop indeed carried that feature, Yoo Chun taught me how to use it. When he had spare time, he would video chat with me. I actually didn’t mind it at all. The interactions were keeping me in good company.
While I was making myself a cup noodle for lunch, I heard an incessant beeping from Jae Joong's laptop. Yoo Chun was calling me through ooVoo. I accepted his call and waited for our computers to connect.
“You look tired,” I commented as soon as we could view each other on ooVoo. Yoo Chun indeed looked tired. His hair was disheveled and he had bags under his eyes. His usual attire, which was a shirt and tie, was replaced with a simple grey t-shirt, and I knew automatically that something was wrong. For some reason, Yoo Chun struck me as a business type and t-shirts really didn’t suit him. Or maybe, it was just me, since our previous meetings, he was always wearing a suit and tie.
“I’m sick,” he muttered, giving me a lopsided smile, “and tired.”
Nevertheless, no matter how tired or sick he would be, he would always give me a smile of reassurance. He was always amiable, but there was also a lot that he kept to himself; this I have observed. But I knew that no matter what, Yoo Chun would always smile.
“Why?”
“My brother had a cold,” Yoo Chun explained, “and it was contagious. Also, it just so happened that I had to pull an all-nighter to finish my project and I couldn’t even make it to work. But its okay, I sent it to my boss via email.” He laughed and ran a hand through his messy hair. No matter how sick he was, he still looked stunning. I wondered how he managed to pull that off and I concluded that it was another one of the secrets of the mystery that was Micky Park Yoo Chun.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, “You should take a nap.” I was struck by how boring I sound. I was so monotonous. Maybe it was the atmosphere…or loneliness. I wondered why Yoo Chun didn’t sign off on me right now considering that I was so dull and sullen. If I would’ve been talking to myself, I would’ve grown bored by now.
“I wish I can,” Yoo Chun said, giving me a little pout as if he was a young child being deprived of sweets before dinner and I laughed at his silly expression, as he held up his phone and continued, “but I am on call. Technically, I’m still on duty, even though I’m off.”
“That sucks.”
Yoo Chun laughed and nodded and at that moment, a ringing interrupted our conversation. I glanced around because it was not my phone’s ring tone. The sound was emitting from Jae Joong’s cell phone, which was sitting on the counter. Sighing, I excused myself from my conversation with Yoo Chun and picked up the phone, “Hello?”
“Hey—girl?” Jae Joong asked, his voice barely perceptible from all static from the connection. It doesn’t matter though, because it was unmistakably still, Kim Jae Joong’s voice. “Oh, thank god. You don’t know how panicked when I wanted to take a picture of something and I realized that my phone was not on me. I thought I lost the phone, but I guess I just left it at home. Take care of my pictures for me, girl. I’ll see you when I get home!”
“Okay,” I said and I hung up the phone. I glanced at the screen, where Yoo Chun was still connected with me on ooVoo. “Oh, I’m sorry, but—”
“No, no,” Yoo Chun interrupted, putting his hands up, “Listen, my stomach’s growling and pretty soon, it’ll start gnawing at other parts of my body if I don’t manage to get food in my system. I actually smell my mom’s wonderful cooking right now, so, if you don’t mind…I’ll end the conversation here?”
“No, I don’t mind,” I said, shaking my head good-naturedly. I have to admit though, that I would be pretty bored without Yoo Chun’s virtual presence. “Go eat. I need to finish my cup noodles too.”
Yoo Chun and I bid our farewells and disconnected our conversation. Soon, I was left with an empty house and silent house once again. Gosh, how could I ever survive this? Didn’t Chang Min and Jae Joong know how boring this could be?! How could they leave me here all alone?! I looked at my bandaged ankle and muttered, “It’s your entire fault, Kim Jae Joong,” and silently cursed at him.
I saw his phone at the corner of my eye and my lips curled up to a sinister smile. I remembered how much Jae Joong valued his phone and he would never let me touch it—let alone use it! Also, I significantly remembered that he had saved really despicable pictures of me on that phone—now was my chance to delete them all!
I snickered at my ridiculously flawless plan. Jae Joong would never know what came upon his phone. Granted, he would know that it was me, but—anything was better those photos of me being held in Jae Joong’s possession.
Ignoring Jae Joong’s request that I should take care of his pictures, (I was actually going to delete them all! Well, the ones that had me in it, that was.) I picked up the phone and started to browse through his folders.
Jae was a tidy person, I admit. I saw him once wearing an apron and gloves and went around mopping the entire house since Chang Min and I were too lazy to do our chores. He always had everything organized and in its right place, unlike me, who just leaves everything around. I wasn’t surprise when I saw that Jae Joong labeled all of his photos and put them in folders according to subject. He was Mr. Perfectionist.
I was browsing through the folders of pictures wondering, ‘How much memory does his phone have? How could he store so many photos?’ After skipping the subject folders like ‘Nature,’ ‘City,’ ‘Animals,’ I decided that my photos wouldn’t fit under that category. Then the weird subject folders showed up: ‘HHJ,’ ‘F&F,’ and ‘H.’ I randomly hit one of the folders—‘H.’
Dang! Why wasn’t I surprised? Jae Joong had set a password. ‘Hm,’ I wondered, ‘what could it be? What password would I use if I was Jae Joong?’
Racking my brain, I finally came up with ‘Jae is hot,’ but it was wrong. ‘Jae is sexy,’ was next, but like ‘Jae is hot,’ it didn’t work. ‘Jae is damn hot’? ‘Jae is damn sexy’? ‘KJJ’? All three of them didn’t work. Frustrated, I tried some more compliments I thought he would pay himself, but none of them granted me access to the folder.
After a few more minutes, I’ve started just randomly punching in numbers and words. ‘Sexy thang,’ ‘Kimchi,’ and I even tried his birth date; all in no avail. All of a sudden, the thought just dawned on me and I suddenly knew. Gosh, why was I so stupid? Excited, I started punching it in. I first tried, ‘Youngwoong,’ but it didn’t work. Then I tried, ‘Youngwoong JaeJoong,’ which didn’t work either. Lastly, I tried, ‘Hero,’ and ta-da! I was granted access!
‘But wait—should I intrude on his personal photos?’ I thought at that moment. And then my mind flashed to when he once told me he saved naked photos of himself on his phone. Wait—what if? I gasped when the sudden realization hit me, but it was too late.
And then, I was greeted with pictures of—me. At first, I thought I should be relieved. Jae Joong didn’t take naked pictures of himself; phew. (Well, then again, I wouldn’t know…there were so many folders…) But I was alarmed by the amount of pictures in that file. I thought that Jae Joong had only snapped a few pictures of me, but boy, was I wrong.
There were a lot of photos of me, about a good fifty, I would say. There were some where he caught me off guard, but I was looking at the camera. Others, I would have to say, he must’ve sneaked up on me to take. There were ones where I was reading a book, another where I was making (charred) breakfast for Chang Min, and another where I was feeding the fish. I was utterly surprised because I never realized that Jae Joong had been taking so many pictures of me.
My first impulse was to erase all of it—they were embarrassing! But then, I decided against it. I snapped the phone shut and smiled to myself a bit, my cheeks reddening. Somehow, I wanted my pictures to be in Jae Joong’s phone. I wanted to be a part of Jae Joong; even if it was just through his photos.
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okay yay. another update.
and guess what?! i'm going be on winter vacation starting tomorrow afternoon (yay!) which means more time to write & update. wait for it ^^
and i'm really encouraged by the comments. please keep them coming. like i said before, they are my driving force. hopefully, my chapters will continue to satisfy you guys :] thanks a lot!
lots of love,
SleepiiDreamer