Saturday 11 August 2007

Chapter 10: I See

The weekend soon came, and I’ve survived yet another 5 working days. Shin Hee, Jeong Hoon’s cousin, had gone back to Seoul, and I had him to myself for the weekend.

“What do you want to do?” he asked me, as soon as I got into his car.

“Shopping?”

“What’s new…” he sighed, but smiled as he did.

“Eat?”

“So we shop and eat?”

“Ne,” I said as I started fiddling with the radio in his car.

I ejected his Eru CD and replaced it with FTTS, immediately skipping the first 2 songs so that ‘Namjadapgeh’ played.

“Do you mind?” he said jokingly.

“Not at all,” I smiled sweetly, and I started to sing along to FTTS.

When the chorus began, Jeong Hoon started singing along too. If I’ve never mentioned this, Jeong Hoon had a beautiful voice. It was a waste he was never signed by a record company. With his good looks and that voice, he could’ve garnered a market in Singapore for the Korean music industry.

We wove through the weekend jam at Orchard Road and ended up at Wisma Atria. It was our usual haunt, and the place that I shopped at the most since I was too lazy to go elsewhere. Sometimes we’d go to Raffles’ City because I wanted to have crepe at Out of the Pan, by the central fountain in the building.

“Brunch first?” he asked me, and I nodded as we got out of his car.

We met up in front of his car and I put my arm around his waist as he clicked the button on his car remote to lock the doors.

“Kaja,” he said, and he gave me a quick kiss on the lips.

We had lunch at Sushi Tei, which was situated on the Takashimaya side of the Ngee Ann City building, and then, we browsed through most of the shops in the basement area of Wisma Atria. I’d spent at least 20 minutes in each shop, flipping through the blouses, pants and skirts and trying on every pair of shoe I thought looked cute, each time asking Jeong Hoon if it looked good on me.

“Igo?” I asked him as I modeled a pair of strappy sandals.

“Don’t you think it looks a little uncomfortable? Shouldn’t you walk around in them before you decide?” he said.

This was one of the reason Jeong Hoon was a dream boyfriend. He would accompany me patiently as I browsed through the shops, even when he knew I wasn’t going to buy anything, and he’d have the right comment or opinion for any question I asked. In return, I’d accompany him when he browsed through the men’s sections or shops.

Jeong Hoon was image conscious, but he wasn’t exactly metrosexual either. There would be days where I wish he’d put more effort when dressing up, but most of the time, he never disappointed me, especially when we had anywhere special to go.

“Wanna stop for a break?” he asked me when he noticed that I’d begun to lean on him when I walked.

I usually start doing that when my feet start getting tired or if they’re hurting, I’d lean on Jeong Hoon for support. That was also because I stubbornly want to walk on instead of taking a break.

“Let’s walk a bit more,” I smiled.

“1 more shop,” he said, and I nodded.

After the last shop, we walked towards Coffee Bean for a break.

“Full… as usual,” I said.

“You get a seat, I’ll get the coffee,” he said.

I was lucky enough to snag us the nice couches that were usually unavailable. I sat down as soon as the couple before me left and started sorting out the shopping bags, but was interrupted midway.

“Is this seat taken,” a male voice said.

“Yes,” I said quickly and looked up to find Min Woo standing before me.

“Hello,” he smiled. “I saw you walking in, and I just had to say hello.”

“Min Woo,” I laughed. “Well, you’ve said hello, you can go now,” I said and he pretended to leave but I grabbed his arm before he managed to walk off. “I was kidding.”

“I know,” he laughed. “So was I… where’s your boyfriend? I’d better leave before he sees me.”

“You don’t have to do that. I should introduce you to him. You might like each other,” I said.

“You’re sure he won’t shoot me?” Min Woo said.

“A fellow countryman? Why would he?” I laughed.

“He’s Korean too?” Min Woo remarked, with an eyebrow raised.

“Ne.”

“You didn’t tell me that.”

“You never asked.”

“What… was I supposed to come to you and go ‘Is your boyfriend Korean?’?”

“Yea…” I laughed.

“At least that explains why your Korean sounds almost authentic,” he said.

“It does?” I beamed.

“Almost,” he smiled, and I felt a little deflated.

“Sierra?” Jeong Hoon appeared.

“Jeong Hoon,” I smiled and stood up to intercept the tray from him.

“Annyeong haseyo,” Min Woo said as he offered his hand to Jeong Hoon.

I might have forgotten to mention to Jeong Hoon that Min Woo was Korean, so he looked a little taken aback when Min Woo spoke in Korean.

“Annyeong haseyo,” he recovered. “Jeong Hoon-imnida. Sierra-ui namja chingu,” he said.

“Min Woo-eyo,” Min Woo replied. “Sierra-ui sajangnim.”

“Okay… now we can switch back to English before you guys start saying stuff I don’t understand,” I piped in.

I’d successfully broken the tension at this point, since the both of them cracked up and started laughing.

“Is she always this funny?” Min Woo asked Jeong Hoon.

“Yea… but it does border on lame sometimes,” he smirked at me, and I pouted.

“I’ll leave you 2 to enjoy your coffee break,” Min Woo said.

“Not joining us?” I asked.

“I’ve already had my coffee,” he smiled. “And I have another appointment.”

“Alright,” I smiled.

“Annyeonghikyeseyo,” Min Woo said.

“Annyeonghikaseyo,” Jeong Hoon said.

“Wasn’t that like a very formal goodbye?” I asked Jeong Hoon as soon as Min Woo was out of earshot.

“We’re only meeting for the first time. There’s nothing wrong with being formal.”

“Right… and he’s my boss,” I said.

“Yea…” he said as he started moving our cups and cakes off the tray and he walked off for a moment to put it back at the counter.

We ate in silence for a minute or two before he spoke up.

“So that’s your boss.”

“Not my immediate superior, but yes, my boss.”

“He’s really young,” Jeong Hoon said.

“He’s about your age.”

“Really?”

“But you look very young for your age, have I told you that?” I smiled, and Jeong Hoon laughed softly.

“Yes you have,” he smiled as he reached forward to nudge my chin with his finger.

We got home close to midnight that day. We had late dinner and went to a jazz bar after that to relax and listen to some music. When I got home, the living room was dark, save for the lamp my sister had left on. She’d been going to bed really early these days. Could be because her work environment had been extra hectic recently, since her company was getting a sudden influx of projects.

Jeong Hoon and I had gotten carried away tonight since I’ll be on assignment next weekend at Sentosa. I’d been assigned to cover a huge concert on Siloso Beach. Top performers from all over Asia have been invited to participate in this event. Finally… I’m going to meet TVXQ!