Xania - Playing with romance
An excerpt from one of the new short stories ' Romance for young ladies
Park
Hannah and Chloe took five minutes out on their way through the park to college. The sun was shining and at 8:35 a.m. it was already a warm September day. They sat on a bench that on one side faced toward the tennis courts and on the other faced the huge glass greenhouse. Their first day of college and they were both a little nervous, the upcoming 'A' levels promised to be a daunting two years. Worse still Dahlia Connors and her gang of miscreants had also gone to college, was there no reprieve from those bullies. Hannah and Chloe had always been the outcasts, the quiet ones, different. Preferring rock music to pop music and dressing accordingly. Over the summer Hannah had her brown hair tie dyed with purple, and Chloe had her blonde hair tie dyed with pink, undoubtedly Miss Connors would make fun and find fault, she did with everything, she seemed to make it her personal mission to hate everything about these two girls.
“Hey did you hear that a big Korean pop star will be studying at the college this year?” Chloe asked Hannah, as Liam plonked himself down next to them.
“Really? How could I have 'not' heard that? It's every status Dahlia has posted since the beginning of summer. Anyway he's apparently a rap star, and therein ended my interest.” Hannah stated and smiled, intently studying her mobile phone. A voice from the other side of the bench made them all look up, “So, you have no interest in a person because they rap?”
Hannah looked up, on the other side of the bench, sat a boy in a baseball cap and dark glasses. An oversized baseball jersey and baggy jeans appeared to complete the outfit, she couldn’t see his feet. He was looking at a piece of paper in his hand, and didn’t look up. “It's not that, its just why would I have interest in a rap star when I like rock music?”
“Does that naturally mean that you have no interest in the person because of the music they like?” there was a heavy accent attached to the voice, but still the boy didn’t look round, just continued studying the paper in his hand, Hannah chanced a peek over his shoulder, it was a map of the college campus, and it was upside down.
“Not at all, its just unlikely our paths will cross, this boy has already generated a lot of interest and speculation, he undoubtedly wouldn’t want attention from the likes of us.”
“You assume a lot on behalf of a person you do not know.” he said, a note of cynicism in his voice and a wry smile played about the corner of his mouth.
“It's ten to” Liam stated, they couldn’t afford to be late on their first day. The three got up to leave.
“Do you know where you're going?” Hannah asked the boy on the other side of the bench.
“Wouldn't I then be asking you to take an interest in me, something you have just stated I wouldn’t want you to do.” the boy stated. Hannah shrugged, getting up she wasn’t going to beg. The three friends started to walk off,
“Hey Miss Mouthy, yeah you could show me where the office is?”
“Is that any way to speak to someone while asking for their help?” Hannah stuttered aghast. The boy smiled, “Sorry I don’t speak very good English, how do I address you?”
“Well not Miss Mouthy that’s for sure! Hurry up or you're going to make us all late!” The boy bowed, then caught them up. Hannah introduced them all en-route.
“I'm Park Lee-min” Lee-min said “Lee-min to my friends.” then again with the cynical smile.
“We know” said the friends, and they all laughed. They dropped Lee-min at the office and headed up to the third floor and their first English 'A' Level lesson. A few moments later Lee-min appeared at the door, he waved to them, they waved back and out of the corner of her eye Hannah saw Dahlia's eyes narrow in her direction. As Lee-min attempted to make his way to them, Dahlia grabbed him and dragged him to the other side of the classroom by the window telling him as they went that he didn’t want to be associated with 'those losers'. Hannah shrugged her shoulders as Lee-min looked back. As he got to Dahlia's desk, he managed to disentangle himself from her grasp. He bowed politely, then informed her that he would join the “rest of the losers at the back of the class”, turned and made his way over to the three friends he had made earlier. Dahlia started to protest loudly when the tutor appeared at the door and quietened her.
Lee-min had taken his dark glasses off and Hannah could clearly see what all the fuss was about. The boy hit the jackpot in the beauty stakes. He smiled at her then, and if she hadn't already been sitting, her knees would have given from underneath her. He had this habit of a crooked little side smile that was so endearing it was painful to look at, and he knew it, it was well practised. He sat next to Liam and asked what had just accosted him? “Dahlia” Liam said and the three friends laughed, knowing full well that, to them that one word explained a lot. The now four all had Math after English, Dahlia again attempted to get Lee-min away from them, and failed. Hannah could see Dahlia's frustration and knew that somehow Hannah was going to end up getting a beating for this.
Dahlia was a pretty girl, tall, slender, perfect figure, green eyes, dark auburn hair, but inside she was just nasty and spoiled.
Lee-min had drama after lunch and they parted ways, but not before adding each other on Facebook and arranging to meet to walk home after college, Hannah felt she would need as many people around her as possible tonight, Dahlia had looked at her several times like one does when faced with something of distaste that was hindering your progress.
Dahlia was also doing drama and came out of the class clinging onto Lee-min and demanding he walk her home, the three friends saluted him and messaged him to say they would be in the park the following morning if he would like to meet them.
That's the way the next week passed, and Dahlia got more and more demanding of Lee-min. Until eventually Lee-min wasn’t able to meet them in the park, she was waiting for him outside his house every morning.
The weekend came the friends went into town, they did invite Lee-min but he had 'other matters' to attend to. Hannah left early as she had errands to run for her mother. She had just got to the alley between the main road and her house when Dahlia appeared with her gang of miscreants, Hannah tried to walk past.
“Who do you think you are?” Dahlia began. Then when Hannah declined to answer she screamed it in her face. Hannah knew from experience that to answer her back would only get her a bigger beating. Dahlia started screaming about Hannah deleting Dahlia's boyfriend off her friends list on Facebook and never to look in his direction again.
“He is MY PARK LEE-MIN” Dahlia was screaming at Hannah, the other girls took it as their cue to grab Hannah's arms so she couldn’t fight back, Dahlia punched her hard in the face. Hannah's cheek dug into her teeth and she tasted blood. Her face swelled instantly. At that moment someone shouted and the gang of girls ran off. Liam ran to her, fuming at her for not fighting back. She pointed out that unless he hadn't noticed, there was three of them and one of her, better to take the punch, at least Dahlia hadn’t been wearing her rings, then again that would have left a mark that was undoubtedly Dahlia's doing. Liam walked her home.
Once at home, Hannah deleted Lee-min off her friends list and strongly advised Liam do the same. Liam didn’t see why he should, Hannah pointed out, they had hardly seen Lee-min since Dahlia had well and truly got her claws into him, it wasn’t worth the trouble. Liam was inclined to agree and they called Chloe. Monday morning Hannah tried her best to hide the bruising on her face. She had got the swelling to go down, but her face was black. It was raining so they all got the bus to school. As they walked up, they saw Lee-min with his arm around Dahlia and knew they had made the right decision, he turned and looked over his shoulder, he tried to remove his arm but Dahlia wouldn’t let him and kept tight hold of his hand. The friends just walked away. In the classroom, Dahlia dragged Lee-min to her side of the class, Lee-min kept looking over at the three 'outsiders' they kept their eyes trained on the tutor, and left swiftly.
A few weeks passed in the same manner. None of them spoke to Lee-min and Dahlia stayed super-glued to his side. He was clearly disturbed as to why they were ignoring him but as they didn’t attempt to explain, he didn’t request an explanation although he had an idea it had something to do with the girl who wouldn’t leave him alone. At least he had a friend here even if Dahlia was overbearing. Eventually Lee-min made other friends Aaron and Cane, who joined with him to make a group, and attempted to disconnect himself from Dahlia without being rude.
He started making preparations for his part in the Christmas show, and thankfully due to his stature, he was able to escape Dahlia and rehearse with only Aaron and Cane. He was doing something special for his mom.
“Hannah, oh Hannah you're never going to guess what happened to me in the supermarket just now.” Hannah's mother was chatting excitedly as she was putting the shopping on the side, she didn’t wait for Hannah to guess before continuing. “Remember I told you I had this best friend in school and she moved to Korea?” Hannah remembered the best friend but not much about her. “Well she's back! I saw her at the supermarket, she is coming over for tea tonight!” it didn’t take Hannah long to make the connection. Hannah's mother continued happily chatting, totally oblivious to the panic welling in her daughters chest. “She has a son who is apparently at your college, maybe you know him? Lee-min?” her mother kept asking the questions, not waiting for her daughter to answer. “Anyway the two are coming over for tea, apparently she has been looking for me under my maiden name, her parents still have the Korean restaurant in town...” and her mother carried on with the story, Hannah started to tremble, this was going to get her the beating of a lifetime.
At 7 p.m. On the dot the doorbell went and her mother removed her apron and ran excitedly to answer it. Hannah had helped lay the table and now wanted to disappear, she certainly didn’t feel hungry. It had taken nearly six weeks for the last bruise Dahlia had given her to disappear, her mother had seemed oblivious to the bruises and the bullying and now she was bringing the object that had caused the last round of bullying right into her house.
Lee-min walked in and bowed to her mother then to Hannah. He was wearing a neat pair of trousers and a shirt and tie, his usually spiky hair was flattened down tidily, and he was so beautiful she could barely look at him without blushing as if he could read her thoughts. Every year Bridget had given a card to Seun-ha's parents for her at Christmas. Awkward questions ensued about why Hannah and Lee-min weren't friends, Hannah merely said they moved in different circles, but at some point she would have to ask him to not to tell Dahlia he had been here.
After dinner the two women started reminiscing and Bridget asked Hannah to show Lee-min her room. Lee-min bowed as he left the table and Hannah felt the compulsion to do the same, it was such good manners. Unable to help herself Hannah had looked him up on the internet. At the tender age of nineteen he was a superstar in his own right, not only in Korea but right across Asia, what he was doing in this little backwater town in England still remained a mystery but Hannah guessed it was something to do with his grandparents owning the Korean restaurant in town.
No sooner had they entered her room she took her chance and asked him not to tell Dahlia he had been here or even seen her. He sat on the computer chair at her desk while she sat on the edge of the desk, he could see she was nervous about this.
“Is that why you haven’t spoken to me? And have deleted me from Facebook?” he leaned forward on the chair till he was almost nose to nose with her. She nodded. He was followed by over ten million people, how did he know she had deleted him?
“The bruise on your face, did Dahlia do that?”
“Please, look I don’t want any trouble, she is your girlfriend, I'm just asking you don’t tell her you were here, is that too much to ask?” she knew she might answer him and he may tell Dahlia, which would cause another beating. Lee-min could see the panic welling in her eyes.
“She is not my girlfriend.” he said steadily. “I am asking you, did she give you that bruise on your face?” he touched the spot on her cheek where the bruise had been as if it were still there. It was such a tender touch she barely felt it. Still she wasn’t going to say yes, for all she knew this may be some plan of Dahlia's to see if Hannah would grass her. So she looked away and attempted to change the subject. She could never look someone in the eye and lie.
“OK, I wont tell her I was here.” he tilted her head up with his forefinger so she was looking at him. “As long as you do something for me?” he saw the startled panic in her eyes, and quickly continued, “my mother tells me that the best friend she ever had in the whole wide world was your mother, and part of her reason for coming home was to rekindle that friendship. I hope that we too can be friends?” he had hoped all the way here, that the Hannah his mother was bringing him to see was the same Hannah with the beautiful eyes he had met in the park that first morning of college. Hannah laughed.
“I'd love to, but it's not appropriate, we move in different circles.”
“Dahlia?” he asked, she nodded. “Aishhhhhhhhhh” he said, shaking his head. He decided to change the subject, she was clearly uncomfortable. “Want to see something?” he asked, she smiled and nodded.
He pulled up Youtube then logged into his account, there was a string of videos. He clicked on one.
This is what I am working on for the Christmas concert, its for my mom, her favourite band was Duran Duran so this is my rendition of Wild Boys.
Hannah watched in awe, there was Lee-min dancing with two other boys. He had turned the chorus into a rap, then he did a handstand onto what looked like a big bongo drum, flipped over it and picked up the drum batons and started banging the heck out of the drum. He pointed out the spring board. Then when the music reached a crescendo and as the words were 'as you're dancing in the rain' he explained that at that point he was going to get wet. Hannah sat wide eyed, so he continued, “and my shirt will be sheer”. She could feel heat rising in her cheeks and knew about now she was bright red. That was the sexiest thing she had ever seen, and she had only seen him getting wet in her minds eye, she didn’t think she could cope seeing the real thing. “Wow” was all she managed.
“Would you like to come to rehearsals?” he asked, she looked to see if he was joking?
“Aren't your rehearsals closed sessions?” she asked, she had read it on Dahlia's wall. It was always handy to know where your enemy was going to be so you could ensure you weren't in the same place. He realised that she knew, therefore she had taken an interest.
“They're 'my' rehearsals.” he stated without need for further explanation, the smile on his face stated he knew the effect he was having on her, he must have caused this reaction in billions of girls. She nodded, she would love to go, then she remembered Dahlia.
“I will ensure that’s not a problem” he said, without her mentioning what it was. He spoke slowly in English, his English was accented beautifully, yet impeccable. They spent the rest of the night watching video's and chatting about their courses. Liam and Chloe arrived and they all chatted easily, like as if Lee-min had always been their friend.
When Lee-mins mother was leaving, they arranged a study session for the following night. Lee-min took Hannah's hand as they reached the door, “you have nothing to worry about now, understand?” she understood but didn’t believe him, she had plenty to worry about. Dahlia was going to find out about this and when she did, Hannah was dead.
The following day in college Lee-min came straight over to her as soon as she walked through the door, had he not heard a word she had said? Or was this what he had planned all along? “She wont bother you again, I promise.” he said casting a look over his shoulder at Dahlia who was giving Hannah deadly glances. Hannah half expected him to drag her over to Dahlia and make them shake hands or something, but he didn’t. Liam and Chloe came over, all of them were worrying, but as Lee-min turned and looked at Dahlia, she looked away.
“I have far too much respect for my mother than to allow anyone to cause her distress.” Lee-min said, Hannah wasn’t sure what he meant, and he didn’t explain further, two other boys came over, he introduced then as Aaron and Cane, Hannah recognised them as the boys in the video.
Later that day as the friends went for the bus Dahlia appeared in front of them. Hannah started to shake, then she felt someone take her hand and to the side of her was Lee-min, “Is there a problem Dahlia?” he asked, she shook her head and walked away.
“She's not going to let this go.” Hannah said out loud.
“She wont have any option.” he paused before continuing, “I am headed to the gym, want to come?” he asked. Hannah's eyes grew wide, the thought of Lee-min in the gym was more than she could handle. He was only slightly taller than her at about 5'9” but he screamed testosterone. The bus pulled up and Lee-min went to board it, she stopped him, where exactly was the gym? he pointed at the college. He was going to take her home first. She shook her head, she had her friends with her. He pulled her into a hug and whispered into her ear, “starting tonight I am going to teach you self-defence.” they parted ways.
Chloe and Liam wanted to know what he had whispered, she smiled as she told them. Both grinned like Cheshire cats, it was clear to them that Lee-min liked her and they said as much. Hannah laughed, did they know how many girls loved him in Asia? “Ahhhh, but he's not in Asia now is he?” Chloe giggled, Hannah knew he was being like this out of some sort of respect to their mothers friendship.
Later that night Hannah's doorbell went, it was Lee-min, her heart melted as he walked through the door. After the study session, he taught her the first of the self-defence moves he intended. Although how she could defend herself against three of them was anyone's guess. As he was leaving he hugged her close to him again and kissed the top of her head. When she checked her Facebook later she had a friend request, from Lee-min's new personal account. She pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming, 'he' had requested 'her' as a friend. Although his following in the UK wasn’t large, he was certainly popular in college, and he had requested her. She accepted. When she went to look at Dahlia's wall, she found she had been blocked.
The following day after college they went to rehearsals. Lee-min was wearing a shirt that had press-studs down the front. He opened the shirt to his waist. “Wow, your skin is so smooth” Hannah said without thinking. Most boys her age were spotty but not Lee-min.
He walked over to her and took her hand, he pulled the shirt off his shoulders and then starting at the bottom of his throat, he placed her fingers on his skin and ran them, slowly the length of his torso all the way down to the waist of his sweats, where she promptly pulled her hand away, she could hear the lyrics of the music in the background “touch me 'there'”. “Bo! Bo! Bo! Aigoo!” she said, (what, what, what, Jeez) in Korean. He laughed, had she just cussed him out in Korean? She had passed his test, she was the only girl ever to pass his test. If she had 'touched' him 'there', he would have distanced himself from her, but he had found a beautiful lady here, and he wanted to get to know her better.
The two boys he were with were talking loudly about the exchange they had just witnessed. Aaron was saying he would have to try that with the next person he met, both boys said they had a lot to learn from Lee-min, the way he had girls eating out of his hand. It was the first inkling that all might not be as it seemed with Lee-min. For the rest of the rehearsals she sat quietly in the corner, and left before he had finished changing. She managed to avoid him for the rest of the week, she was beginning to think he was playing her like a game. She watched him from a distance, when she could be sure he wouldn’t know she was there. He played Dahlia the same way he was playing Hannah. Little touches here and there, sweeping a stray strand of hair off her face. Smiling that cute way he had when she looked at him. Putting his arm possessively round her shoulders when another male approached. Yes Lee-min was a player of the worst order. He knew just exactly which of a woman's buttons to press to get the right effect. Hannah's seventeenth birthday was just weeks away. She was still a virgin and intent on keeping her virginity for someone who deserved it, that person wasn’t Lee-min, then laughed at her own stupidity, he had never really given her any inkling he liked her in that way, maybe he was just a tactile person.
No comments:
Post a Comment