Situation 3 - curiosity
"Sorry, but I really don't like that Camille girl," Cho says as we walk to her house.
"No need to be sorry. You're not the only one who dislikes her I'm telling you," I muffle out, midway into biting a muffin I recently bought.
"then why did you invite her?"
"I didn't. She invited herself" I say
"I guess so. How do we tell her to stop coming though?"
"We just don't. She actually needs help with English, so I need to help her either way."
"Yeah, but can't you teach her separately from me? I really can't put up with her," she asks, frowning at the thought of Camille.
"Cho, I also have a life," I say, laughing "I'm not exactly fond of the idea to have to teach two people at separate times."
"Right, sorry," Cho says. I smile at her and pat her arm to assure her that it didn't bother me. Cho takes her keys out and opens the door wide enough for both of us to enter at the same time.
"Choooo? Are you home?" I hear Hao's shout from upstairs
"Yeah" Cho shouts back
"I left some snacks for you at the table! I'll be right down!" Hao shouts once again. Cho doesn't answer but smiles instead.
"Your brother leaves food for you to eat?" I ask, surprised
"Yeah, most of the time. Your sister doesn't?" She replies, visibly confused that Jude doesn't do the same
"Not at all. To be honest, no siblings do that." I reply. Cho frowns and looks down, trying to take off her shoes
"Really? I guess it's just Hao then."
"So you guys do get along?" I say
"Oh my god Hanbin, don't start with this again," Cho says, throwing one of her shoes at me.
"I wasn't saying anything!" I say, laughing while dodging her second shoe that's aimed toward my face.
"Sure you weren't. Look, Hanbin, Hao and I do have a good relationship, there are just a lot of things we don't like each other for. For me, he's too perfect, and for him, I'm too much of a wannabe." Cho says, walking towards the kitchen.
"Why does he think that you're a wannabe?" I ask, following her down the hallway
"I don't wanna talk about it," she replies "Do you want ice cream or chips?"
"Ice cream is fine."
"Ice cream it is"
I sit down on a chair while she takes out two bars of ice cream, handing me the vanilla one while she eats the things that Zhang Hao left for her to eat. As we eat in silence, I hear someone quietly walking down the stairs, only for it to be Hao. He walks into the room, looking at his phone, where some music is blasting through at high volume. He lowers the volume a bit before entering the kitchen.
"How was your day, Cho?" He asks, walking up to the fridge weirdly. He probably doesn't notice me here.
"Fine" Cho whispers out, probably embarrassed at her brother's behavior.
"Yeah? What classes did you-" Zhang Hao stops midway in his sentence and starts shaking his hand up and down "Cho?"
"Hm?"
"Did you take the last vanilla ice cream stick?" he asks, his voice getting concerningly low. I freeze midway in licking the ice cream and turn around to him. I notice he has turned around and has already seen me
"you" he says, his low voice staying the same
"Hey..."
"You took the last vanilla ice cream"
"He didn't. I took it for him because I didn't know you wanted it" Cho says. Hao looks at her and then at me. For a second, I feel like he's going to scream at me, but instead, he relaxes his shoulders and smiles.
"No worries." He says and then walks off calmly.
"This is what I meant," Cho says
"Huh?"
"By him being perfect. He can't get mad at anyone. It's not something that he's possibly able to do."
"Everyone gets mad at someone at one point," I say
"I know, but he just... doesn't. He keeps it in and then throws all that anger energy into screaming with music on and putting his all into homework and studying," she says, huffing in anger
"That's not perfect. That's just unhealthy" I explain
"No, it's called being perfect" she replies. We stay in silence as we eat when I suddenly have the urge to ask
"Why do you care so much anyways?"
"Why do I care about what?" she asks, curious
"About him being perfect. Like, why does it bother you so much?" I say
"I don't know. It's just that I feel like I'm his shadow when it comes to absolutely everything. And when I try to be as perfect as him, they just call me a wannabe. But when he does it, it just comes out so naturally."
"Oh," I say, not knowing what to reply. Thankfully, she continues.
"You could say that I envy him in some way. he's just so perfect that sometimes, it's not even envy that I feel, but more like worry. I worry that everything that he keeps to himself is eating him up. I've tried to talk to him, and we've had so many fight about it. I've been trying to make him open up and let all his true emotions out, but I never managed" She takes a break to breathe and then continues "The only real emotions I've seen him use at home is anger, but he never shows it outside"
I nod, feeling bad for her, but for Zhang Hao as well.
"Hanbin?" she speaks out quietly
"Hm?"
"Can I tell you something?"
"Of course" I reply, smiling at her
"Well, Hao has always been too perfect, even to the point that he managed to take away so many of my friends"
"Your friends? What do you mean?"
"Whenever my friends would come over, Hao would talk to them and they would practically be all up on him. Whenever we finished school, they would practically invite themselves to my house only to see Hao. After that, I was left with no friends. That's when I decided to be friends with you." Cho looks at me with pure sincerity in her eyes "Please don't leave me as well"
I suddenly feel my heart break at the words. It sounds like she has been through so much, that I just want to hug her and comfort her until she feels alright
"Oh my god, Cho! I'll never leave you!" I say, taking her hands and returning the eyes of sincerity "I promise"
"Thanks, Hanbin. That means a lot to me" she says, smiling, tears welling up in her eyes "The thing is that, even if he took all of my friends away, I'll always forgive him. He's just so nice to me that it's hard for me to hate him. He helps me with everything that I need help with. There was once that I got really sick at home and he immediately one of the important artworks he was working on at school to run all the way here and make me soup and give me medicine. He ended up losing the painting and stayed up all night to remake it for the next day."
I nod in understatement, seeing the kindness that came from the boy that day.
"Cho? I have a question though" I say
"What is it?"
"Why is it that even if he is so perfect when he met me at your house, he stayed away and acted all awkward? Almost like he was avoiding me?" I ask
"Because I told him to"
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There you go! Double update today just as I promised!
So the story is finally starting to develop. Cho's side of the story is finally revealed!! :)
I'm actually quite happy with this chapter, compared to the last one. I just noticed that I made this chapter a lot longer than the other 'curiosity' ones, but it's fine.
Also, heads up, I'm going to separate the situations for the 'attraction' chapter into different chapters, just like these past chapters
(stream 'And I' by zb1)