Clinging to Friendship

Chapter 7

Thirty minutes later Ji-Yeong and I were finally free from detention. The two hours were finally done with and I could go home and work on the homework I hadn’t done during detention. Oh well. We walked together towards the front doors when I realized something.

“Oh no, I totally forgot to tell my parents that I had detention today,” I slapped my forehead in my anger, which left a painful stinging sensation behind.

“Did you need a ride? I could drive you if you’d like?” Ji-Yeong offered and I gave him a grateful look

“Could you? I’d really appreciate it,” I smiled at him and threw my arm over his shoulder. “Thank you so much.” He nodded in response and led me over to his car.

Damn, he had a pretty nice-looking car for a teenager. It looked like a… A twenty something Chevy Malibu. It was a really good-looking car.

“I like your car!” I complimented him. He beamed at me and when he reached the car, he patted its hood.

“I’ve wanted a Chevy since I was like ten. I’ve been saving up ever since then!” That was kind of cute. He’d been saving up for something he’s loved for so long. It was sweet. I wish I had that kind of dedication, as soon as I had twenty dollars I’d always spend it on something immediately.

I nodded and walked around to the passengers’ side door. I waited for him to unlock it before climbing in. Ji-Yeong climbed in soon after I did. I buckled myself in and waited for him to do the same and start the car.

“Oh hey, do you still need help catching up on English and Trig?” I asked, a couple minutes into our drive to my house.

“I completely forgot about that. Yes, I do need your help. Do you mind coming over to my place, so we can work on that?” He asked me, glancing over at me as he did so.

“Yeah, yeah. I got you dude. Let’s go over to your house then.” He nodded and changed direction so that instead of heading to my house, we were heading towards his.

“Hey, do you mind putting my playlist on? It should be on YouTube.” Did this guy literally say that his playlists were on YouTube? Not Pandora or Spotify. Man, what a weirdo.

“Yeah, I’ve got it.” I searched through his apps on his phone until I found his YouTube, and then the playlist I assumed he was wanting to hear. The first song to play was a Fall Out Boy song. I started laughing which lead to Ji-Yeong giving me a look.

“What is it?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I just can’t believe you listen to emo music. Like I was expecting some kind of K-pop song.”

“Fall Out Boy isn’t emo, they’re like alternative pop. I don’t really like emo music. Besides, I do listen to K-pop. I’m pretty sure that there are some on there.” I scrolled through the different music that was in his playlist, and I saw quite a few K-pop songs on there, but nothing I had heard about, and I also didn’t see any emo songs on there.

“I guess you do have some K-pop on here… And here I thought that you were secretly emo. But no, you lied.” Ji-Yeong laughed loudly.

“No, no… I was never an emo. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he trailed off, jokingly. I laughed and leaned against my seat. Ji-Yeong sang softly along with the music. He totally sucked at it, like it was hilariously bad, but for some reason, it was nice to listen to.

God. What was with these weird thoughts I had. I must be going insane.

“Hey, Kian.” Ji-Yeong was shaking my shoulder, trying to get my attention. “Dude, we’re at my house, come on. Let’s go.” He unbuckled himself and left, leaving me in the car by myself. After a couple of seconds, I decided that I should probably leave the car. Only two days after knowing him and I’m already at his house. Layne would be proud of me.

“Ok, so what should I expect when I enter your house?” I asked him, my palms were starting to sweat. Man, I’ve never been this nervous before.

“Just follow what I do,” Ji-Yeong said. Great, what wonderful information. Ji-Yeong unlocked the front door and a couple steps in, he took off his shoes and left them by the front door. I followed his lead, leaving my shoes beside his. I heard someone yell something in Korean and Ji-Yeong replied.

“What did you just say?” I asked, snapping my head over to him. He just waved his hand at me.

“Nothing really, my mom just asked how school was and I answered her.” He responded nonchalantly.

“Is she going to speak in Korean the whole time?” I questioned. If we talked to each other it would definitely be awkward not being able to speak to her in English.

“Probably, she’s not very good speaking English. Though I can translate for you,” Ji-Yeong said, heading further into his house. We walked past the kitchen and I saw this short, motherly looking Korean woman bustling around the room, cooking. Ji-Yeong cleared his throat, to notify that he was there. His mother turned around, with a bright smile, and rushed over to hug him.

“여보세요! 이 지영은 누구입니까?” His mother spoke, her voice was soft and sweet. It kind of reminded me of Ji-Yeong’s voice, except feminine. I looked over at Ji-Yeong, hoping for him to translate for me.

“Is she angry for me being here?” He glanced at me and laughed, attempting to cover it up by covering his mouth.

“No, no of course not. She’s just asking who you are.” He answered me, before responding to his mother. “안녕하세요, 어머니, 키안입니다. 우리는 친구.” He spoke a couple seconds more before grabbing my hand and leaving the kitchen. He brought me through his living room as quickly as he could. Not letting me look around but I was able to catch sight of one hanging picture. A family picture of a younger looking Ji-Yeong, his parents, and someone else. His older brother I assumed.

He didn’t stop moving until we were up in his room and the door was closed.

“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked he was acting kind of strange.

“Nothing, just that my mom doesn’t exactly know I was in detention.” He mentioned, his back was turned to me as he was setting up his desk for us to study. “So, what are we going to be studying?”

“Well… we’ve gone over a lot since this semester has started… I think I have Mrs. Layman’s study guide, so I should probably help you with that.” I stated. My hands were shaking as I tried to pull my handouts from my backpack. It was almost impossible to get my papers out, with how much they were shaking. “I haven’t worked on the study guide yet, so we can work together on it.”

“Sounds good!” Ji-Yeong took out his own piece of lined paper, I assumed it was because he didn’t have the study guide. “Let’s get to work.” I sat down at one of the chairs he had brought to his desk and he sat in the other.

~

“Give a definition of the word Euphemism and an example,” I read from the study guide aloud. It had only been half an hour and we were halfway done with our study guide, I’d like to thank Ji-Yeong for that. I was practically a mess, being beside him was far too distracting and I couldn’t think properly at all. He was pretty much dragging us through it.

Ji-Yeong looked at the clock on the wall above his desk and closed his book.

“Dinner should be ready soon. Would you like to take a break?”

“Sounds good!” All I needed was some distance from Ji-Yeong and then I could calm down a little bit. My nerves were totally shot. I climbed out of the chair and headed toward his door. “Should we head to the kitchen-” My question was cut off by the fact that my phone started ringing. I checked it and saw that my mom was calling and that I had ten missed calls from her… I’m f****d.

I answered the phone and the only thing I heard before it was hung up was, “Come home.” Oh, I am so totally f****d.

“Ji-Yeong, I really gotta head home. Could you possibly drive me?”

“Yeah, I can do that.” I opened the door and held it open for him to walk through, then I followed closely behind him. Ji-Yeong took me by the hand and pulled me after him, so I wouldn’t linger. Luckily for him, I wasn’t even in the mood to look around his house. My mind was mostly on what was going to happen to me when I got home.

~

“Kian. Hey Kian?” Ji-Yeong was prodding my shoulder, trying to get my attention, “We’re at your house.” There was a touch of worry in his eyes, so I tried to rid him of it with a short reassuring smile.

“I got it, thank you so much. I really appreciate the ride,” I thanked him quickly before escaping his car. I rushed up to the front door, unlocked it and was immediately greeted by the angry faces of both my mom and my father.

“Kian Jumaane Okoye. Where were you tonight?” My mom demanded. Her face was darkened with anger and I swear, I could see little fires burning in her eyes. She was always terrifying when she was mad. She looked like she was holding herself back from killing me here and now. It was totally different from how she had acted just the night before.

“Sorry, mom… Father. I got detention for talking in class. I didn’t even realize that the bell had rung! And – and just like you asked, I was speaking to one of my classmates, not Kassidy,” I cringed inwardly for using Layne’s dead name and sent him a quick apology in my head. “I was talking to a new student, his name’s Ji-Yeong. I was introducing myself to him because you said that I had to stop being friends with Kassidy… And Mrs. Layman caught us and gave the two of us a two-hour detention.” I spoke hurriedly, my words sometimes slurring together as I tried to get all of it out. Though each time I reached Layne’s dead name I would have to slow down and force it out, and each time I said it, it made me feel awful.

After my speech, I looked at my mom and father trying to gauge what their reactions were. My father had always been good at hiding his emotions, which left me unsure of what he was thinking. My mom, on the other hand, looked relieved.

“Oh… thank god. It was just detention. I thought something bad had happened to you,” she breathed out, sighing in relief. Then her expression changed to one of anger again, “Why the hell didn’t you tell us you were in detention?” She demanded.

“I forgot...”

“You. Forgot.” The pause between each word made me nervous, much more nervous then when I had been in Ji-Yeong’s room, what was she about to say next? That I was dead? Was my phone going to be taken away? I was grounded, and I couldn’t do anything except go to school and back home? What was she going to do?

“Kian. Your room. No dinner.” My father stated. I nodded and ran upstairs to my room, so I could comply with his orders. Honestly, that was probably the best punishment that could happen to me when the two of them were angry. I could deal with no food for tonight.