Derick W J Tan

He smiled to show her that all was well.

“Since when did you start calling me oppa?”

Seo Hyun froze when she heard the question. It was rather inappropriate for her to address him as such when they barely know each other.

“So-sorry–“

“–It’s all right,” he then said. “You’re living in my house so it’s just a matter of time before we know each other better.” Then he had an idea. “Are you going to bed now?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m going downstairs to watch cartoon. Keroro is coming on in twenty-four minutes.”

“Ah, so you have time.” He got up and walked towards her. “Care to join me for some ice-cream and a short, twenty-four minutes chat?”

“Tae Yeon unnie says I shouldn’t eat ice-cream at night,” she said as she held his arm and led him down the steps though it wasn’t really necessary. “She says I’ll get tummy ache if I do.”

“Ah, who cares what that naggy old woman has to say–“

“–What?”

“Jesus!” He nearly fell off the stairs when he heard Tae Yeon right in front of him. “Where did you come from?”

“Toilet you stupid boy.” She strode past him. “I’ll take care of you tomorrow for calling me that.”

Right there and then, Ixy made a resolution to start going out for morning joggings at the break of dawn, starting from the very next morning.

“Oh, and I’m sleeping in your room today.”

“What? Why?” he asked, but there was no response. “She already walked away didn’t she?”

Seo Hyun nodded.

There was a pause.

“I’m gonna assume that you just nodded.”

She followed him to the kitchen where he convinced her that an ice-cream at night once in a while wouldn’t hurt anyone, so she took a small tub of Fudge Chocolate Häagen-Dazs ice-cream and said she would share it with him. It was supposed to be him sharing it with her since he was the one who paid for it, but somehow he seemed to lose ownership of things in his house, like how he just lost his room to Tae Yeon.

“So, how old are you?” He sat right next to her on the sofa and her entire body tensed immediately.

“Nineteen this year, twenty in Korea,” she said, too nervous to scoop some ice-cream for herself.

It was the first time she sat so closely – pretty much shoulder-to-shoulder – to another guy other than her manager and her father. She was quite glad that he was blind so he couldn’t see how much she was blushing, but then again, it was already an hour past midnight and they didn’t switched on the lights.

“A year younger than me then. How did you meet Tiffany?”

“We went to the same music school…” The ice around the tub was biting her fingers but she was too nervous to do anything about it.

Thankfully, he seemed to realize that and gave her a tissue to wrap around it.

“Yoona?”

“We were neighbours and we went to the same school.” She answered him like she was being interrogated for some crime she committed. “We’ve been friends since we’re babies.”

“You’re really nervous, huh?”

“Yea.” Emergency alarms started going off in her head. “N-no! No!”

It didn’t help at all in the beginning when he started to laugh, but slowly she began to enjoy hearing his laughter. She couldn’t explain why but even though it made her feel more embarrassed, it managed to help her relax as well. And that strange feeling in her heart now felt warm and even comforting. If this was what it felt like to have a crush, then maybe it’s not as pointless as she once thought.

“Erm, can I ask you something?”

He swallowed before he nodded.

“Were you afraid when you heard what happened to Tiffany unnie?”

Her heart started to race when she saw the amused expression on his face slowly disappear into something… sadder. It was a dumb question and her brain was sighing at her in disappointment. Of course he’d be afraid, or at least worried. Why would she ask this to intentionally make him admit just for the sake of it?

“I’m not the kind of guy who has a lot of friends,” he began to explain. “In fact, you’ve more or less met all of my friends already. And because I have so little friends, I tend to treasure them a lot more than how most people would treasure theirs. Tiffany is a friend who I treasure so much that, I can’t live with myself if anything happens to her. The same goes for Soo Young, Tae Yeon, Yuri, Jessica, your good friend Yoona, and I believe in due time, you as well.”

The way he spoke with such gentleness and the way his expression seemed so tender made Seo Hyun want to just lean forward and kiss him, which she would have done if he hadn’t fed himself another scoop of ice-cream. And the thought alone was going against every fibre of her body. She never had an interest in romance dramas, thinking how silly and unrealistic they were, yet here she was right now, wanting to just move closer and kiss this beautiful face.

“You’re so pretty…” Her words barely left her lips as she gazed at his face.

“Great.” She roused with a jerk, remembering where she was. “Even you are saying that now.”

“Huh? Wha-what did I say?” And then she thought to herself, Omma! (Oh my!) Did I say that he was pretty out loud? I couldn’t have! Omma! I did didn’t I?

She could hear him chuckle as he got up, pulling a blanket out from the bottom of the sofa which he placed on her lap.

“Go to bed once it’s over,” she heard him said though she didn’t understand what he was referring to.

Once he left, she turned to the television and realized that Keroro’s theme song had already finished playing and the programme had already started. She gasped as she wrapped the blanket around her legs. The girl was shocked because she was distracted from her cartoon.

She NEVER got distracted from Keroro before.

- Chapter 19 (Family Traditions)