Joon's mother paced around the living room of the house, her phone propped against one of her ears as her other hand was around her mouth. She nervously bit at her nails as she listened to the long three rings for the umpteenth time.
Frustrated at the lack of response from her son, she began to panic. Where could he have been for the past week without her hearing from him? She ran a hand through her hair as she looked at the phone, contemplating on whether or not she should call again. But before she could make up her mind, her daughter caught her attention.
"Mom, what are you doing?"
She turned to face her youngest as she walked down the stairs towards her. She yawned slightly before she reached her mother.
"Jimin, why are you awake?" she asked.
"I should be the one asking that mom," her daughter responded slightly playfully. She sighed as she looked at her phone once more before turning her full attention to her daughter.
"Have you heard from your brother? He's been gone for a while now and I can't reach him."
Her daughter walked closer to her and removed the phone from her hands before saying,
"He's probably doing okay. He's twenty-four mom, he can look after himself."
* *
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Areum stepped out of the washroom, after freshening up to find the room empty. She looked from the bed which was still messy from when she had woken up, to the small sofa where Joon had slept for the night. A small part of her felt slightly guilty for making him sleep on the couch when he had been the one to pay for the trip. But last night, her logic had seemed well, very logically. However, as she thought about it now, she knew that it was wrong of her to have done that to him. And because of that, she resolved to allow him to sleep on the bed tonight instead.
She walked to her suitcase and opened it to find fall clothing. Although she hadn't gotten the chance to step outside since they had only arrived the night before, she had a feeling that her clothes were not appropriate for the weather. However, since she didn't have a choice at the moment, she chose the lightest long sleeved top she could find and paired it with some skinny jeans, pulling up the sleeves slightly when she finished dressing.
As she turned around to return to the washroom to fix her hair, she heard Joon's muffled voice from behind the curtains and she decided to investigate. As she tiptoed towards the curtain, she began to hear his conversation.
"Relax mom, I'm okay," Joon told his mother who was obviously distressed on the other side of the line.
"But how could you leave without telling me anything?" she asked him. He rolled his eyes at his mother's overly dramatic words.
"I told you that I was going on a trip with..." he trailed off, feeling a stabbing pain at the back of his throat as he recalled what had happened between them. But at the moment, he didn't want his mother to know and because of this, he decided to pretend that he was on the trip with "Jin."
He heard his mother sigh over the phone and he could practically see his mother as she paced around at the sound of her name.
"Honestly I don't get why you refuse to listen to me. That girl is nothing but trouble."
If only you knew the truth which your words held, he thought to himself as he heard his mother's words.
"She's not that bad," he forced himself to say to his mother.
At that moment, as Areum heard those words, her interest peaked. She wondered who he was talking to his mother about. It couldn't be her, right? And as she thought that, she fell through the curtains since she had been leaning into it, thinking that the glass window would have been closed, and fell onto the hard floor of the balcony.
She looked over to Joon to find him looking at her while he was still on the phone. However, he quickly ended his call as he bid goodbye to his mother.
"I'll talk to you later mom," he said.
"Joon, we're not done talking," his mother said sternly. He nodded even though he knew she couldn't see him.
"I know, and I'll call you back soon. I promise." And with that, he pressed the end button on his phone before turning his full attention to the intruder.
"Were you listening to my conversation?" he asked, eyes narrowing at her. Areum awkwardly ran a hand through her hair as she smiled stiffly.
"Maybe," she mumbled, looking away. Joon turned to look at the view of the capital of Argentina as he wondered why she would listen to his conversation.
"By the way," Areum said as she stood up, dusting off her jeans, "who were you talking to your mom about? You said 'she's not that bad'."
Joon hesitated on that question, unsure of what good telling her about the woman who broke his heart would be. If anything, it would give her a reason to ridicule him. And since they were going to be together for quite some time during the trip, he didn't want to jeopardize the slight chance they could have at a mutual relationship.
When Areum noticed that the silence had dragged on for a while, she decided to finish her question by asking,
"It wasn't me...right?"
The reaction which she got from Joon caught her off-guard to say the least. Because the next thing she knew, he was laughing his head off. She looked at him with her lips pursed, wondering why he found that so funny; it hadn't been an unreasonable question.
"You could've just said no, you know," she said, looking away from him. Joon turned to her once again, wiping away invisible tears.
"Why would I talk about you to my mother?" he asked rhetorically.
She didn't say anything.
"You seriously thought we were talking about you?" he asked.
She continued to refuse looking at him. And it wasn't because she was hurt by his behavior but because a small part of her wanted to call her mother to let her know where she was and how she was doing. She was almost 100% sure that her mother would only have lectured her on how she had become such a failure. But hearing the small amount of their conversation had caused a small sense of longing to sprout in her heart.
Upon noticing her continued silence, Joon approached her and tapped her shoulder to gain her attention.
"I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, I didn't mean to."
Not knowing how to reply as her mind was still dwelling on the idea of calling her mom, she only nodded her head before entering the room once again. Joon followed behind her and closed the window when he was inside. He immediately remembered as he looked at the time on his phone, what was already planned for them.
"I hope you brought a nice dress with you," he told Areum as he walked to his suitcase.
She turned around, slightly confused.
"Why do I need a dress?"
"Because we're going dancing."
Her reply to his statement was the same as his reply to her question earlier: an outburst. But her laughter was quickly cut off when Joon stated,
"I'm serious."
---
It turned out that he had indeed been very serious─they were actually going dancing. And although she enjoyed dancing, even with her lack of ability to do so, she was terrified when they exited a taxi in front of a dress shop.
"You have got to be kidding me," she said as she looked into the window of the store. She looked over at Joon as he opened his mouth and said what she knew he was going to say but in a mimicking fashion,
"I'm serious."
Areum failed to see the small smile which appeared on Joon's lips as he ushered her into the store where they were immediately greeted by a smiling woman.
And after what felt like an eternity to Areum, she finally stepped out of the dressing room with a dress after debating with the woman for several moments about how red was not her color when in fact, that was just an excuse to get out of wearing a dress. Joon smiled slightly as he gave her a nod of approval, something which she didn't expect.
"You're actually kind of pretty in a dress." 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQTzsUZkvmW
