Tangled in Notes

Chapter Eleven

Wednesday. It was really a tiring this week. Besides the fact that our club was into so many things – so many that I couldn't understand why I needed to do paper works about showcases and news about them, I still needed to focus on my main goal. I haven’t convinced Jared yet. It was harder than I thought. I was too mesmerized by his eye-smile the other day.

Anyway, the speaker in the practice room was blasting. It was really loud. The boys were preparing so much. In addition, finally, Jared accepted the essay I made. Though it didn't really satisfy him like what he said, it was more like a contemporary one, like I still needed to pass him one as the writer of the club.

Soon Young was in the same class as me during English and it was nice since I didn't know anyone in that class during weekdays— except him and Alder.

For the first time, I agreed to eat lunch with him today since I won't take long in the cafeteria anyway. I need to go straight to my Math class and ask Frances to teach me how to solve the problem I still couldn’t solve.

After Math, Jared called for another meeting. We were now in the conference room – like always – and he stood in front of us with his usual poker face. It was funny because ever since I saw him smile like that, it’s as if stuck in my head. Every time I see him now, I smile and remember his eye-smile.

So, he stood there and eyed everyone like we started a fire. If this is about me getting scolded because of the ribbons and everything I did to him when he was sleeping then I might just slip my earphones in my—

"This Saturday, we need to meet in a certain place privately."

I looked at everyone and they were all nodding so I nodded as well. It was the trend so I needed to follow it. I suddenly felt excited. I have never gone into someone else’s house.

"We usually go to Armin’s place, right? Well this time, we can't because his parents are having guests that day. The school will be closed and locked on Saturday because the guards are having their day-offs that day as well."

Murmurs filled the room like:

“How unfortunate.”

“What luck.”

“What should we do then?”

“Why do we need to go to a place privately again?”

"Let's just go to the tea shop we always go to!" Sean suggested in exclaim.

"They're always closed every weekends, Sean" Sed said and he looked down in disappointment.

"Ayeeee." Kevin threw him a tissue and I laughed. He was poking his head like he was scolding him in a very bad way. Soon Young shot him a glare.

“Hey!” he exclaimed.

“Quiet.” And with that, everyone fell dead silence. "Who knows somewhere we can use that is private?” Jared said and they were in deadly silence once again.

"Then that means we need to go to a place that also belongs to the board." Jinho (I think) said and I nodded.

I guess I'll have to cancel all my part times on Saturday so that I could participate in the meeting. I played with my fingers and thought how it would feel to get my nail polished. I always wondered why girl spend their money with i— Armin raised his hand and Jared turned to him with a questioning look.

"Why don't we go to Julia’s place?"

My eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

"It's pretty clean there and besides, she's new. We might as well use her place to have the meeting."

They all turned to me and I clenched my teeth. “Armin Zeiger! Are you nuts?" I exclaimed.

He stuck his tongue out to me then smirked. “I guess I am nuts.”

I glared at him.

"I think so too." Sed said and I raised my brows. My eyes widened. Everyone started agreeing as they clapped their hands saying victory phrases and Geez! He had to suggest my place!

"Ms. Burton?" Jared turned to me and I pressed my lips together. "It looks like Ms. Burton disagrees with the idea. She isn't very cooperative at times like this."

I bit my lip. Duh. I frowned. "But my place is very small. It's just an apartment."

"But it's very hideous!" Armin blurted. "Didn't you say privately, Jared? It would be a perfect place."

I raised my finger with a frown to let him know that I was getting so pissed at him right now.

Jared nodded and I looked down unsure of what to say or answer. I don't really know. This is such a bad idea. I won’t even call it a house for that matter. I’ll only embarrass myself in front of these rich kids.

"Come on, Julia." Sean shook my arm and I looked up with a heavy deep sigh. It’s as if everyone’s counting on me. They were depending on me or something! They were all giving me pity eyes especially Soon Young.

I looked at Jared. "Well?" He asked and I gulped hard.

"Fine."

"Yes! A new house!"

"But we can't use my room. It’s too private."

They nodded.

"It's settled then. On Saturday, we'll all meet in front of the school's main gate— 7:30 SHARP, we'll just rent a cab to go there. Clear?"

"Yes!"

I did not respond. I better clean on Friday then. Another responsibility to be taken care of.

I was about to leave the cudgel house when Jared stopped in front of me. I looked at him waiting. "Work on a phrase that describes the club. You can submit them to me any time until I approve."

He passed by me.

"Okay. Okay, grumpy midget. Geez."

"Are you dissing me right now?" I turned to him to the back and smiled. "No president! Have a good day!" I waved at him with a wide fake smile and he rolled his eyes turning to walk away.

He will surely grow old alone in this world. FACT.

Should I quit my part-time jobs for that matter? I don't think so. Having that is not really a big deal but it was recommendation from my doctor and God, what should I do? I turned to my snow ball and sighed. “What will I do, dad?”

A while ago. . . I visited Dr. McKinley like how I originally planned and I couldn’t help but feel nervous. Possibilities..? Am I going to die like fictional characters in books? Like Jamie of A Walk To Remember?

5:00 pm. I walked towards Kim Lee Hospital. It was just a twenty minute walk and I kept rubbing the reddish bump in my arm. It keeps getting worse and it looks ugly like what Armin told me.

I reached the hospital in no time and went to meet Dr. McKinley. He looked like he was expecting me though because he looked at me as I bowed in front of him then taking a seat across him.

"Ms. Burton."

"Dr. McKinley, I apologize for not meeting you on the day you said. Things just went busy at school so I couldn’t skip my classes to go here last Monday."

"Oh no. Don’t worry about it. The results are out."

My heart suddenly pumped faster. Why do I suddenly feel a bad vibe around my body? I coughed. "Excuse me." I covered my mouth bowing lightly.

"Ji Yoon, are you sure you’re not smoking cigarettes?"

My eyes widened at doctors' sudden question. I shook my head several times. "Of course not, doctor!"

“According to the results, you have been suffering mild asthma. Were you still coughing nowadays? Your symptoms, coughing, shortness of breath, chest tightening, and wheezing, all of these fall under the symptoms of asthma.”

“Uh. . . Recently, I haven’t. It stopped.”

“Good. Because you have to come here if ever your cough comes back. If it comes back, then we’ll have to check on you again. It is possible that it’s only asthma right now but it may change into pneumonia, bronchitis, copd, lung cancer, emphysema without prior notice.”

“Ah. I forgot to tell you doctor,” I raised my sleeve and showed Dr. McKinley the red bump in my arm. “I’ve been having these too. I have the same ones in my back.”

“I’m still not sure about this. But it could be skin asthma. I’ve seen these before. Ji Yoon, listen to me,” he paused and I nodded. “For now, I’m going to have to ask you to stop whatever that makes you tired. If possible, please spoil yourself. I’m not saying that you should kill your happiness but this is the thing I would like you to obey. For the sake of your health.”

I nodded with a heavy heart and left eh hospital without further ado. For the sake of my health?

I lay back in my bed feeling so bad. It’s just asthma after all. What am I saying. It’s asthma. I could have expected this. Almost everyone has this disease. It’s not just me. Oh God. I can’t think properly right now. I stretched my back. My phone suddenly rang. It was Armin. “Hello?”

“What are you doing right now?” he suddenly asked.

“Nothing actually. I was just lying down.”

“Can you come with me for a moment?”

“Where are we going?”

“Tch. You ask too much. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

Then the call ended.

I frowned and stood. I wore my jacket and put on some shoes. Good thing I haven’t changed into my pajamas yet. I was surprised when the intercom beeped. I ran to the door and saw Armin already standing there. “Five minutes? Really?”

“What?”

“More like ten seconds. That was fast.”

He smirked. “Come on.” He pulled my wrist.

“Okay. Geez.” I closed the door and inserted my keys over the pocket of my jacket.

We were quiet during the drive. “Where exactly are we going?” I asked and he creased his brows.

“You’ll find out after, okay?”

I frowned and the car finally pulled for a stop. I peeked outside and we were in front of Mari’s Cake Shop? “What are we—?”

He went out so I did as well. We both entered the shop that said 24 hours open and the bright place hit my eyes. Then I remembered. I turned to Armin in amusement. “No way.”

He raised a brow crossing his arms. “That’s right, Julia Burton. You’re such a late bloomer.”

“Three years?!” I smiled wide.

He smirked.

“We’ve been friends that long?!”

He chuckled and pushed me to walk forward.

I was so amused. I nearly forgot! Armin always does this. Last year, he took me to this tower and we celebrated our 2nd year of being friends there. This time, we were in a cake shop. I smiled.

“Go on. Pick any topping you want.”

I smiled and grabbed a flower, a number 3 artefact, blue sprinklers, a roll of black chocolate, red icing, blue icing, and a circle shaped ready-made cake.

Armin paid for the things I got using his card and I clapped as we took a seat in an empty table. What should I do now? I thought and started wiping cream over the cake.

I placed the roll of chocolate in the middle of the cake; placed the number 3 in the middle as well and grabbed the blue icing. I looked at Armin and handed it to him. “You design this side, I’ll design this side. Hm?”

“It’ll look ugly. Like your face.”

I frowned and slapped him hard. “Thanks for that.” I rolled my eyes.

“Ahuh. The pleasure is all mine.” Then he smirked.

He chuckled a little and grabbed it from me.

When we both finished designing our parts, I told him we’d explain our concepts. What I did was, I sprinkled sprinklers around my area. Then, I drew an infinity sign using the pink icing. After that, I wrote ‘Best friends. Together. Forever. Happy 3 years with Armpit!’ “First, the reason why mine is like this is because, I want it to be simple yet meaningful. I used blue icing for the phrases because it our favorite color. I used pink for the infinity sign because there’s no other color I could use, obviously.”

He chuckled.

“There, my part says it all.”

He clapped and fixed himself.

I studied his design. It was a drawing of a princess riding in a dragon’s. It occupied most of it. I frowned. “What’s this about?”

“This is an illustration that no matter what happens, I’ll be by your side. I’ll keep you safe. I won’t let anything happen to you even if it means risking life. I’ll be an older brother you can lean on during hard times and that’s a promise.”

I smiled. “Wow… You didn’t have to pull off cheesy things to make me flutter, Armin.”

He smirked.

“Okay, okay. You were cool. Happy?”

He chuckled. “At least I have better concept that you have. You’re lame—and boring.”

I rolled my eyes. Sometimes he’s sweet but he never fails to tease me every day. “Oh. So this is what it’s about? Ha! You’re unbelievable.” I crossed my arms.

He looked down with a light smile.

“Let’s exchange parts to eat. That way we can both keep our promises. We stay committed.” I said and he looked at me with a nod.

“Okay.” I smiled before we started eating.

“To friendship.” I mumbled looking at him.

He stared back. “To friendship.”