"Yeah, I get what that means, but I don't get what this means," Cho says, pointing at her English notebook.
"It's not that hard. Here let me explain" I say, smiling at the girl who has a confused expression on her face.
We are sitting down on a green plain, the sun slowly setting.
As I explain, I notice how she tilts her head whenever she doesn't understand anything. Whenever she does that, I just re-explain everything but in a different manner.
"Cho, you know what you should do if you want to be good at English for next school year?"
"What?"
"Study during summer"
"Oh hell no. That's something only my brother would do"
"Putting your brother aside, studying actually really helps"
"Liar. You never even study" She says with a scoff
"Yeah, but we have different circumstances. I was born with a photographic memory. While you.." I trail away
"While I was born dumb?" She asks, raising her eyebrows in a mocking way
"No... I never said that. You were born with a - uhhh - not so photographic memory. You get what I mean?"
"No"
I look at her and firmly close my eyes and open them again to show my annoyance.
"All I'm saying is that-"
"Alright, alright, I get it. I was just joking. Here, let's continue" She says with a laugh, shoving the blue notebook towards my face.
"Ok. Let's try a different method. I'll say a word out loud and you explain to me what it means" I say, hoping for this to work out.
"Alright"
"What does the word 'chimney' mean?"
"'Chicken'? Isn't that some kina bird?"
"No, Cho, not 'chicken'. 'Chimney'"
"What the fuck is that?" She says, tilting her head to the side once again. I sigh and show her the notebook in which there is a photo of a chimney.
"Ohhh you should have said that!" Cho says, slapping my arm
"I did say that!"
"No, you didn't. You pronounced it wrong"
"How do you pronounce it then?" I ask, and scoff once Cho does it the right way.
"Huh, will you look at that. Photographic memories aren't always the solution" She says in between laughs, standing up hastily, knowing perfectly well that I will start running after her.
I follow her in a speedy run in the plain greenery of nature, laughing at her scared face.
Her dark hair flows perfectly behind her, brushing lightly against her face. Her beautiful eyes avoid me, and look for cover instead. Her lips are shaped into a smile, more mischievous than anything. Every part of her looks beautiful, under the light of the setting sun, and on top of the tall green grass.
That is, until she falls with a shout. I catch up to her and she that her knee is bleeding, its redness falling onto the grass
"How did that happen?"
"I don't know. I just tripped over something" she says in return, looking up at me with wide eyes.
"Alright, let's get you home," I say, helping her up "no more English for today at least"
"I got lucky didn't I?" She says with a warm smile
"You did" I say, smiling back at her with an equally warm smile, but I hope that she sees something more in it.
---
"Is this your house?" I ask
"Yeah," she says, stopping her walk and looking at me "thanks for bringing me"
"No problem" I say, feeling my ears getting red, and trying to avoid her eye contact
"I'll get going then. Make sure to disinfect that knee of yours" I say.
"Yeah, don't worry about it" She says with a smile
We look at each other. I don't know what to make out of her expression, but I feel butterflies fly all over my stomach with her gaze. She makes me feel like a child with a crush, in which I want to talk about her all the time to others, and in which I want to make her letters to tell her about how much I value her.
I look at her with an expression that I hope seems like affection. I slowly move towards her, not knowing exactly what to do, but feeling nervous by doing it. We stay there for a while, before I gain consciousness of how weird this might seem.
"Alright, bye" I say, coughing. I readjust my bag on my shoulder and reluctantly walk away.
"Hanbin?" I hear Cho call out. I turn around to see her shyly looking at me
"Yeah?"
"Wanna come in? We can watch a movie?" she says in a more quiet voice. I stop the smile coming to my lips and shrug
"Sure, why not" I walk up to her, not being able to stop the smile. She smiles back and unlocks her door. We enter a small hallway with a wooden floor. The house has a comfortable vibe to it. Maybe I'm saying that because I don't hear music blasting from another room, and silence is comfortable. Or maybe I'm saying that because this place is genuinely a comfortable place.
"Here, lets go to the living room" Cho says, handing me a cup of cold water
We walk into a room with a TV and two couches. I slump down onto one of the couches and rest my head on a pillow.
"I didn't notice how hot it was out there" I say, embracing the cold air from the air conditioner.
"Yeah. It's called summer for a reason. I think we deserve ice cream," She says, jumping up from the couch "Ice cream is well deserved"
I look up at her in wonder, trying to remember where I heard that from. It sounded vaguely familiar.
"Ok, ice cream sounds good. But-" I say, to stop Cho from running to the kitchen "disinfect your knee first before anything"
"Alright. I'll be right back" she says, before walking away.
I nod, and take out my phone and slowly scroll through my socials. I hear steps walking towards me and I smile warmly, looking up from my phone.
But that's not Cho I see. It's a boy, or more specifically, the boy I had seen at the convenience store. He freezes once he sees me, smiling, and then turns his back to me to walk away.
"Hi!" I say, stopping him from leaving. He has no other option but to look back at me and stay in his place "you're the guy at the convenience store, right?"
"No" he says in a curt way. I frown, inspecting him.
"Yes you are. You're Zhang Hao, right?"
"No, I'm Kim Minjun"
"Oh. Alright, sorry for bothering you" I say, feeling embarrassed of mistaking them. Nevertheless, they do look identical.
Cho appears from behind Minjun and frowns once she sees him.
"Zhang Hao. What are you doing here" she says, with a low but clear voice. I widen my eyes once I see her glaring eyes, and then notice that the boy is called Zhang Hao. I snort at the boy's stupid way of lying, and how he got caught for it, but I hide it almost immediately.
"Sorry, I was just going to take a book of mine. It's not here though" Zhang Hao says, looking nervously around the room, and then back at Cho
"Ok? Then leave" she says, looking at him expectantly. The boy nods and scuttles away. Cho looks at me, her facial expression turning less harsh.
"Here, your ice cream" she says, handing me the food.
"Thanks," I say, taking it from her and smile at the coldness that touches my skin "who was he by the way?"
"Hao? Oh, he's my brother" she replies, seemingly annoyed
"The perfectionist?"
"That's the one"
â¡â¡â¡
I'm backk
I honestly don't really know what to think of this chapter. Like I don't know if I like it or if I hate it. It's up to yall to decide ig.
Also, my friend actually made me a whole letter the last day of classes to tell me how much she loves me! I was actually bawling my eyes out-
Bro I love all of my friends sm they have no idea. They're like always my number one priority and I always want to see them happy.
(Stream 'really really' by Cherry Bullet)