A Regular

Part 5 - END

"What should I wear? This one? Or this one?" I shoved two pieces of clothes in front of Chu's face.

"Yah, no need to shove it on my beautiful face!" She scowled and slapped my hands away.

I sulkily move away from her and went to Chaeng.

"Chae−"

"Left." She nonchalantly pointed out my white T-shirt. I hadn't even finished my sentence but she interjected it midway. She loved to do that, I wondered why.

Whatever, I quickly discarded my other shirt and went to the bathroom to change. When I came back, I saw a jeans jacket flying onto my face. Thanks to my quick reflexes, I could catch it before it smacked my face.

"Yah! Do you want me to kill you?" I glared at the culprit. She just shrugged her shoulder, dismissing my protest.

"Wear that too and put on a beanie." Chu pointed out the beanie on my desk. I followed her instruction and turned around to face them.

"So?" I spread my hand, asking for their approval.

They crossed one of their arms while putting the others on their chin, scrutinizing my looks.

"Oh..." Chaeng exclaimed and went rummaging my locker. Fishing out my rose gold-framed glasses, she put it on me. "Perfect." She clapped her hands, admiring her handy work.

"A... Are you sure?" I clarified once again. My confidence was below the ground right now. I felt my anxiety slowly rising and my body was jittery.

"Trust me, we are your best stylist. And thanks to us, your ugly self has transformed into the coolest gay in the neighbourhood." She nodded her head while praising themselves. Of course, they are my best stylist, I didn't have any other stylist.

I just rolled my eyes at them and picked up my phone, checking the time.

"Oh, s**t, I'm gonna be late." I quickly snatched my bag and wore my shoes. The two just watched me moving back and forth in amusement.

"Bye, gays! Make sure to lock the door before you go." I grabbed my car key and dashed my way to the door.

"i***t!" I heard Chu shouted from my room. I ignored it and kept going to where my car was parked. I started my car and hummed to Blackpink's songs playing from my car playlist.

It's been a while since Joohyun apologized to me. By a while, I meant a few weeks, maybe months, I lost count. In that span of times, we spent a lot of times together. After she apologized, we agreed that we will be friends. Although I was a bit disappointed, I respected her decision. However, I made it clear that I liked her more than friends. Hiding my feeling was something I didn't want to do, I'm never good at that anyway.

She knew about it, and she also felt the same way. But she said she didn't want to rush things, especially she's just been through a breakup. She wasn't ready to be in another relationship just yet. She didn't want it to seem like her next relationship was just a rebound. So, she wanted to sort out her feelings first before having another relationship.

We went to a couple of dates, to Jennie's parties or we will just spend our day binge-watching movies when we are free. She was hesitant at first, guarding herself against me. I had a hunch that she was afraid I'll betray her trust, just like her ex did. As if I will stoop that low. There's not even a tiny bit intention in me to do that, and I show it in my action.

Honestly, she didn't have to worry about me finding someone better than her. She was already perfect. Finding someone else was like settling for less. Her ex was an i***t for doing that to her. I was different. I wasn't one. And today, I'm going to ask her to be my girlfriend.

I couldn't help but anxious. There were a bunch of 'what if' scenarios in my head. What if she wasn't ready yet? What if she finally realized that she can only like me, as a friend? What if she...

Okay, stop! There will be no good thing came out from overthinking, my mom taught me that. Focus on the positive side. Like, if she accepted me, I'll be the happiest girl alive and I'll make sure to make her one too. If she rejected me, I can finally stop chasing and move on. The latter still sounded depressing in my mind, though. I shook my head to clear it from my thoughts.

I will focus on the present. I'll ask her to be my girlfriend and deal with the consequences afterwards.

I parked my car on her driveway and rang the bell of her house. I blew a huge amount of air to ease my anxiety. The movement behind the door stiffened my body. Then the door opened, revealing a goddess. Seriously, I can't get enough of her beauty. She wore a floral blue long sleeve dress, a pair of white sneakers, a white canvas sling bag on her left hand, and a rounded thin-frame glasses perfecting her flawless beauty. I had to pick up my jaw from the floor every time I saw her. I wouldn't get tired of watching her.

"You're drooling." She giggled.

I erratically moved my hand to check if there's drool on my face but stopped halfway realizing that she's just making fun of me.

"I am not!" I protested, acting mad because of her teasing.

Her laughter filled the air around us. Her body bent slightly forward while one of her hands clutching her stomach and the other was on her lips. I smiled at the sight.

"Are we gonna get going, or we'll spend the day watching you laughing at me?" I tilted my head and raised one of my eyebrows. She finally stopped laughing and closed her door. Her hands found their way wrapping around mine.

"Let's go, grumpy!" She pecked my cheek and dragged me to my car. She kept teasing me along the way to our destination. Sometimes, I faked a pout and pretended to be upset, but her laughter made me crack after a few seconds.

"We have arrived, my princess." I playfully bowed after opening the door of the car for her. I held out my hand and she took it gracefully, playing along with my act. We couldn't hide our smile of how silly looking we are right now.

"So, princess, what do you want us to do?" I grinned at her. We were here at the yearly festival in our town. There were a bunch of booths ranging from foods, arcade, accessories and so on. I took her there because she said that she wanted to come to enjoy a casual afternoon stroll once in a while.

"Let's play the arcade first." She dragged me to the shooting booth near us.

Just when I was about to pay for the ticket, I heard someone called her.

"Irene?"

She turned to the man and smiled at him. "Junmyeon, hi."

Great, just great. I scowled internally when I saw him. another competitor for me to beat. This guy right here had a crush on MY Joohyun and never stop pursuing her ever since. Yes, you heard it right, 'MY' Joohyun. I claimed her already, just in my heart though. I was about to claim her for real, but this guy will ruin my plan for sure.

"What a lucky coincidence." He exclaimed joyfully. Coincidence my ass, lucky for you, but bad luck for me. "You want to play that? I'll join you." He didn't' wait for Joohyun's answer and bought a ticket for himself.

Sensing my irritation, Joohyun shot me an apologizing smile and squeezed my hand. Why did she have to be a kind person at a time like this, can she be rude for once and shoo him away to continue our date? I inhale a good amount of air to calm myself down. I can get through this, I can do it.

We played the game, by we, I meant that guy and I. It became like a competition for us to win Joohyun's attention, which it was. I went first with full determination to win the big prize. With full confidence and concentration, I began to shoot. And... I missed. I cursed in my head angrily.

On the other side, he knocked his first target successfully. I tried again and again, until the last bullet in my rifle. I can only land three successful shots and the boy behind the booth gave me two bracelets as the reward. I looked at him, he got a cute stuff toy and gave it to Joohyun with a wide smile plastered on his annoying face.

I looked at the bracelets on my palm and sighed dejectedly. There's no way I'll beat that cute stuff toy with these, so I just put them in my pocket. I saw Joohyun eyeing me questionably when she noticed that I didn't give it to her. I forced a smile and shrugged my shoulders. She was about to talk to me when that guy suddenly interrupted and suggested that we should play another game. She looked at me asking for my approval but I turned my head away. Before she could decline his invitation, he gently pushed Joohyun's shoulder to the next booth. I felt like I want to strangle him right there and left him choking to death, but I didn't. So, I just trailed behind them like a third wheel.

He tried to make a conversation with me too but I just answered him with a yes and no. He gave up after a few tries. And how I wished that he gave up on pursuing Joohyun too, I snickered inside my head.

The afternoon went on like that. He dragged Joohyun wherever he wanted to and I followed them like a lost puppy. I felt so gloomy in contrast to the fine afternoon. If this was a Disney movie, maybe the flowers and the trees will wither whenever I came close to them. Joohyun, being the kind person as she was, reluctantly followed whatever that guy wanted.

Feeling left out, I sat on a bench across the both where they were playing. I rested my head on the cold iron rail, looking up at the darkened orange sky. I let out a deep breath to ease my mind, but it didn't work. The cloud above made a beautiful pattern. It made me smile painfully. Why was every beautiful thing were out of my reach? Every time I held out my hand to touch them, I only caught the empty air. I put my hand in my pocket, feeling the softness of the bracelets. Closing my eyes, I squeezed them tightly.

I didn't know how many times had passed since I closed my eyes when I felt someone sat next to me. I opened my eyes and saw a chocolate ice cream cone in front of me. It was her. I took the ice cream from her hand and looked around, searching for that guy.

"He's gone. I told him to go." She smiled softly. "I'm sorry I didn't do that earlier. Smile, please." She touched the edge of my lips with her forefinger. My lips automatically formed a smile because of it.

We ate the ice cream silently. She scooted closer and laid her head on my shoulder, her hand's playing the seams of my jacket.

"Are you still upset?"

"No, I'm not anymore." I shook my head.

"So, where's my bracelet?"

I looked at her, raising one of my eyebrows. "You already had that stuffed toy, I thought you didn't want my bracelets?" I tried to sound neutral but she can still sense my jealous tone.

"Silly. Who said that I didn't want it? You assume things. Now, give me my bracelet!" She opened her palm and held it out to me.

I picked the bracelet from my pocket, but instead of putting it on her palm, I put in on her. She stared at what I was doing, saying nothing. When I was done, she drew her hand back and touch the bracelet.

"It's beautiful, thank you." She said sincerely. Her eyes radiated softness and I could see the happiness inside it.

All the bad things that happened today vanished from my thoughts as I watched her smiling eyes, making me remember the sole reason I asked her out today. I took her hands on mine and squeezed it. I looked directly at her eyes. It's funny how I was a jumbled mess when I thought about this but I became calm all of a sudden when I was about to do it.

"Hyun, be my girl. I know that the road will sometimes be bumpy, but I promised to do my best to make you happy. Would you give me a chance to prove it?" Never once my voice cracked when I said those to her, and I was grateful. But my heart was another case. I felt it hammering in my chest like it will burst out anytime soon. I was afraid that she might hear it because of its loudness.

She didn't answer me and wiggled her hands from my grasp. My face started to fall, bracing myself of the rejection that will come soon.

But it didn't happen as I felt her hands cupping my face and she collided her lips on mine, kissing me passionately. It took me a few seconds to recover from my shocked state and responded to her kiss. I wrapped my hands around her petite body. Her lip was soft and sweet. I can taste a hint of vanilla from the ice cream that she just ate. It was heavenly and I don't want this moment to end.

We parted our lips. I rested my head on hers and stared at her lovingly, our noses were touching, happiness exploding inside me.

"Was that a yes?" I asked, still panting.

"Do I really need to explain that?" She acted annoyed at my question.

"I don't know, you tell me." I grinned widely, straining my cheeks. She playfully pushed me but smiling nonetheless.

"That was a yes, Miss Manoban." I felt a strange chill ran down my spine when she said my last name. I wrapped her in a tight hug to express my happiness.

She accepted me. She agreed to be my girlfriend and made me the happiest girl alive. Finally, after waiting for so long, I can be with her. I knew that this was just a beginning, but I'll make sure that she won't regret it. I'll fulfil my promise for as long as she let me.

~END

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You've reached the end of my story. As I said, it's a short story. Thank you for supporting me. Maybe someday I'll make a longer story than this. Please forgive me if you found mistakes in this book (which probably many, lol). I'll do better next time. If you have any suggestion or constructive critics for me regarding my writing style or my story, I will gladly accept it.

Once again, thank you for sparing your time reading my story.

*make a ninety degrees bow*

~Kasz