City Lights: Chapter 6

Chapter: 6 Characters (in order of appearance): Hee Jin*, mystery idol, Seung Hyun, Ye Jun, Kim Dong Sun* and Jin Chul. *indicates original character Words: 2,043 Edits: 0 Added: February 2, 2011

Friday, July 16, 11:57am
Seoul, South Korea

Hee Jin walked into the apartment building after spending an hour at a nearby internet café. With the technician being unable to fix her internet until tomorrow, she had to use a public computer to chat to her older brother.

It was already beginning to get hotter out and she wanted to stay in her air-conditioned home. Her air-conditioner had been on the fritz since she arrived but one of the neighbors offered to fix it for her yesterday. She was in heaven after that.
As she made her way to her apartment, she spotted the playboy just walking in from the front door.

"Hey!" she called to him. He turned and looked at her. She noticed he looked tired at first but the moment he saw her, his face lit up.

"Hi, Hee Jin!" he replied as she walked up to him. "You ready for tonight?"

"Kind of," she said. She paused then said sheepishly, "About tonight. We're going together, right?"

"Of course," he smiled.

"The thing is... Well, I was wondering," Hee Jin began.

"You want to know my name?" the man quickly said. It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yeah," Hee Jin smiled. "I think it would be a good idea. I mean, we're supposed to be friends... somewhat... but I don't even know anything about you let alone your name."

"Sul Woon Do," he answered.

"Hm?"

"Sul Woon Do," the man repeated.

"Sul Woon Do?" Hee Jin said. The man began grinning making her feel weird. She raised her eyebrows. "What?" she asked, unsure.

The man suddenly burst out laughing. "I'm joking."

Hee Jin paused, completely confused by the situation. "So your name isn't Sul Woon Do?"

The man was still laughing a little, "No. No, it's not."

Feeling a little irritated and very confused, Hee Jin asked, "Okay. So, then what is it and why on earth did you tell me some other name?"

"It's Kim JaeJoong. And Sul Woon Do is a trot singer. You've heard of him, though." He made it sound more like a question than a statement.

"Nope. Never heard of him," Hee Jin replied.

"Oh? Really?" he looked somewhat disappointed.

"I'm guessing you like this Sul Woon Do?"

"Of course! Who doesn't?" JaeJoong looked excited again. It didn't seem hard to get him all giddy.

"So, it's Kim JaeJoong?" Hee Jin asked. JaeJoong nodded. "No lies? There isn't some singer named JaeJoong?"

He laughed again. "No, no," he said. "There's no singer named JaeJoong."

"Okay. Well, JaeJoong, is there anything in particular that I should know about you?"

He thought for a second, even cupping his chin in his hand and tapping his lips with his index finger for added effect. Then he said, "I don't like hot food very much."

Hee Jin raised her eyebrows. "Okay, that wasn't exactly the answer I was expecting. But, I guess it's a start."

"What about you?" he asked eagerly.

"Me? I don't care much for hot food either. I have a heat-sensitive tongue."

"Really?" He laughed a little. "I guess we have something in common."

"Yeah, I guess so." Hee Jin felt a little awkward. She was used to talking with her friends about different things but none of them had ever been so excited about learning about her. Nor did they ever give as much attention to her as JaeJoong was doing.

"Okay, what else can you tell me about yourself?" Hee Jin continued. "Do you-"

"Have you eaten yet?" JaeJoong interrupted.

"What? No. Not yet," Hee Jin responded, a little taken aback.

"Because I know where there's a neat little café nearby. We can go eat lunch there and you can ask me questions as we eat," JaeJoong said, looking quite excited at the thought.

Hee Jin looked unsure.

"It's not a date," he clarified. "It's just a friendly meeting to get to know each other. So, what do you think?"

Hee Jin shrugged her shoulders. "I guess." She figured it would be easier to ask him questions while eating. She had no idea why but she felt too awkward asking as they stood there.

So, the two of them walked off to a little café named "Antoinette Café." It took them 10 minutes to get there. They didn't talk much on the way so JaeJoong kept smiling and even laughing a little every now and then.

Hee Jin had no idea how JaeJoong found this place. Even though it was in a busy area, she wouldn't have noticed it unless someone pointed it out. It looked quite old and tacky. She hoped that the inside looked nicer... and normal.

The outside paled in comparison to the inside. It was the strangest café she had ever seen. Everything, from the wallpaper to the tables, looked out of place. There were odd tiny trinkets dangling in various places and there were cute little cartoon animal candle holders for the center pieces on the tables. As adorable as they were, they didn't match with anything in the café.

An overly cute and very bouncy teenage girl came and welcomed them to the café and seated them near a window. They had a frog candle holder for their center piece. Normally Hee Jin liked frogs but everything in that café was a major turn off for her. She really hoped the food was decent.

JaeJoong, on the other hand, seemed completely comfortable. He was looking around as if everything looked natural.

"So, um, how many times did you say you've been here?" Hee Jin asked.

"This is my second time. Isn't it something?" he smiled brightly.

Oh it was something, alright. But Hee Jin didn't have the heart to tell him how she really felt about the place so she forced a smile which she was certain looked awkward. He didn't seem to notice and started looking around again.

Hee Jin leaned over to get a better view of the kitchen. She was so shocked she gasped. She could see JaeJoong in the corner of her eye look at her. She was sure he was about to ask her what was wrong so she started to cough a little to hide the gasp. He went back to looking around.

Hee Jin couldn't believe her eyes. She didn't think it was possible but the kitchen looked worse than the rest of the café. The walls were painted lime green and a blinding bright red. The two colors clashed horribly and the two chandeliers (yes, chandeliers) hung high but there were at least a hundred little trinkets hanging from the ends. Each trinket looked unique and maybe would've looked nice if they were on their own. But bunched up like that, they had no appeal whatsoever. She couldn't even tell if the countertops were even clean. They were the ugliest grungy yellow and the stove looked permanently stained with grease.

She sat up straight and began looking out the window. She was already starting to lose her appetite and wanted to avoid looking in the kitchen. She wanted lunchtime to go by as fast as possible so she could leave the café and get back into the normal world.

She noticed two other people eating in the café and they looked as uncomfortable as she felt. No wonder hardly anyone came here.

The girl finally brought the menus to them. Hee Jin was relieved to see the menus looked normal. There weren't any pictures of the food inside which worried Hee Jin. She noticed they served sandwiches and figured, out of everything in the menu, that was probably the safest to go with. She couldn't see how much a person could go wrong making an egg salad sandwich. She closed the menu, ready to order.

JaeJoong was staring at each page of the menu intently. Without looking up he asked, "How about item number four?"

Hee Jin bit her lower lip and closed her eyes. She just wanted a simple and quick sandwich, nothing else. She hoped if she didn't answer, he would take the hint and move on.

He didn't.

"Hee Jin?" he asked, looking up. He saw her menu was closed. "Did you already decide?"

She opened her eyes. As much as she didn't like it, she couldn't let him down. It was just one time. Only one time she had to do this. It wouldn't kill her to do this... hopefully.

She forced a little laughed. "I guess I spaced out for a second there," she lied. She reopened her menu and looked at item number four. She was surprised to see it was a western-style meal; potatoes, gravy, peas, and a couple slices of roast. What surprised her even more was that this was being served at lunchtime. Most restaurants and cafés, or the ones she had been to anyway, had set meals for different times of the day. Of course, this wasn't like other cafés.

She agreed to it so when the girl came back, they ordered the meals.

While they waited for the food, Hee Jin decided to start asking JaeJoong her questions. She wanted to avoid looking around the café as much as possible. Plus, the reason she agreed on having lunch with him was to find out more about him.

As they talked, Seung Hyun and Ye Jun walked through the door. Seung Hyun glanced around the café. "Wow. It's packed in here," he said loudly.

"Very funny," said Owner Dong Sun as he busily prepared food in the kitchen. "If you're looking for the punk, he's in the back," he said without looking over at Seung Hyun and Ye Jun who had both walked up to the front counter.

"But I'm really surprised," Seung Hyun said. "I have honestly never seen so many people here at one time since I first started coming here. It's a new record."

"You're not going?" Owner Dong Sun looked up at them threateningly.

Ye Jun and Seung Hyun laughed and walked through the door to the back.

Jin Chul was cleaning up some of the clutter that seemed to be growing in the far corner. Boxes were piled in a big mess; most of them had the contents spilled all over.

"Owner Dong Sun is paying you to clean up?" Ye Jun asked in disbelief.

"No. I was getting sick of coming in here and seeing this junk laying around," Jin Chul replied.

"Wow. Your situation is worse than I thought," Seung Hyun said, looking worried.

Jin Chul stood up and looked at them. "Situation? What situation?" he asked.

"Well, you know. Owner Dong Sun said you've been down a lot lately and haven't been talking online as much as you used to," Seung Hyun replied, looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Did you get into a fight with that snow guy?" Ye Jun asked.

Jin Chul shot him a nasty look and went back to cleaning. Ye Jun and Seung Hyun glanced at each other. Ye Jun mouthed "Say something" to Seung Hyun.

"Well, anyway, we were wondering if you wanted to come with us tonight," Seung Hyun said.

"Where?" Jin Chul asked.

Seung Hyun went on, "Young Hak's girlfriend said her friends are having a group date at a pizza place and they need some three more guys to fill in the spots. Me and Ye Jun make two so we just need one more. How ‘bout it?"

"I don't know. I'm not really into group dates," Jin Chul stood up again and looked at them.

"Come on! It'll be fun," Seung Hyun said enthusiastically.

Ye Jun joined in, "Yeah. And it'll totally take your mind off things. You won't have to worry about thinking about that snow guy." Seung Hyun elbowed him in the side.

Jin Chul ignored Ye Jun's comment. "I'll think about it."

"Come on!" Ye Jun persisted. "There will be lots of hot chicks there. And we all know how much you need a girlfr-" Seung Hyun covered Ye Jun's mouth with his hand.

"Okay. Yeah. Think about it. Text me when you decide, okay?" Seung Hyun said. Then he quickly waved to Jin Chul and dragged Ye Jun by the arm out of the room and out the café.

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Author's Notes:

Surprised? I hope so xD I love JaeJoong and HAD to use him in my story. I like his personality in it. Omo~ I just thought of something stupid I did. When I wrote this chapter, I didn't want one of my sisters accidentally seeing JaeJoong's name so I kept using "mystery guy" and "mystery man." Just before I released it, I changed all of "mystery guy" to JaeJoong using the automatic replacing program in Word. I then posted this on the international F.Cuz forum without realizing I forgot to change "mystery man" to JaeJoong as well so I confused my sister when she read it. The chapter would say "JaeJoong" in one part and "mystery man" in another. I felt so stupid when she told me and I ran over to change it. lol So lame of me :P Just thought I'd point out the reason I used a frog for the center piece of the table JaeJoong and Hee Jin sat at... I like frogs... A LOT xD FYI, trot singer Sul Woon Do is Seung Hyun/Lee U's dad (for real life).