Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
JAE'S POV (3 years after)
Three years have already passed since my parents’ separation. Now, my dad and I have moved on and have forgotten about the pain. We decided that it’s time to go back to Korea where I could continue with my studies.
My mom picked us up at the airport and she’s with Jaerin, my half sister. This is the first time I’m seeing her and at first I don’t know what to feel. Should I feel aloof or should I be a good older brother for her?
She is such a beautiful girl, we have the same eyes, mouth and skin and I couldn’t help but fall in love with the little squirt. She’s hiding behind my mom’s legs and her face is flushing when my dad approached her.
“Rin- ah, say hello to your uncle and your oppa.”
“Hello uncle.” Oh, her voice is so cute, like gentle breeze.
“Hello Rin-rin, my Min-ah, don’t you think that she’s like the girl version of Jae?”
“Exactly what I thought when I first saw her.” She said excitedly.
Jaerin approached me and held my hand, “Are you my oppa?”
I sat till I am the same height as her, I touched her cheek and hair, “Yes baby. I am Joongie-oppa. You are so pretty.”
She then smiled and it was like the prettiest thing. “But Joongie-oppa, you are the prettiest person I’ve ever seen, Umma, I wanna marry oppa when I grow up he’s like Prince charming!”
She touched my face with her little fingers, then she hugged my neck and said, “Up.”
“Oh, Jaerin-ah you’ve fallen for your oppa huh? Don’t cling too much on him, he might have trouble breathing. Come now.”
Mom brought us to our new apartment and left us to settle down. After a few hours, our luggages have been put in their place, things into their order and clothes on the cabinets. I started to get ready to go out since I have to enroll to a new university.
Since my grades are above average I decided to try my luck at the Seoul University. The office asked me to take entrance tests and to have an interview with the professor. They asked me to wait for the results and while waiting I entered a café.
“Welcome to Max café!” a familiar, squeaky voice greeted me once I sat down at a stool.
“Junsu, it’s me Jae!” Junsu is my best friend along with Yoochun. They are both my childhood friends and we share our deepest secrets with each other. We communicate often (by often I mean, late night phone calls ever single day.) when I spent years in Japan.
“Jae? Oh my God you’ve changed, you really did the dare! You look so… feminine and cold. Haha.” While in Japan we played with each other on the computer and once, we had a bet that whoever loses will dye their hair blond, and as you can see-read-the loser is none other than me.
“’f’course I did! And you, you’re still our dolphin, duck-butt!”
“Yah! Stop calli-“
“Is that Jae I hear? Dude! I missed you! And hell yeah you look good” Yoochun hugged me so tight it was crushing my airway.
Among my two best friends, Yoochun is my soul mate, he literally is like my other half but not in the romantic way. He understands me without me even saying a thing. It’s like we would just look at each other and we know what the other is feeling.
If Yoochun is like my twin, Junsu is our dongsaeng. We (Yoochun and I) protects and cares for Junsu like our brother, well before it was like that, but now, I’m the only one who sees Junsu as a brother. Yoochun kind of developed deeper feelings for him. He still didn’t confess to Junsu thinking that it will destroy our friendship.
I told them about me enrolling in the same university they were in and after that we just talked nonsense things.
“Why is that there is no person at the cashier?! Yoochun! Junsu!” a man younger than us by a year appeared at the doorway.
“Sorry Min, we were so caught up talking with our friend here who just came back from Japan. Oh here, let me introduce the two of you. Jaejoong, this is Shim Changmin the owner of this café, our classmate and our friend. Changmin this is Kim Jaejoong, I told you a lot of things about him Min.”
I could just laugh at the way he was looking at me, like I’m some kind of delicious treat with his drooling mouth. I snapped my fingers at his face twice since he looked like he was in a trance.
“God, am I that delectable? Sorry hon, I’m not interested in you.”
“Wha-what? As if I like you?!”
“Not in that sense maybe, but still you like looking at me.” I turned my back from him before he could say anything and face my friends who were laughing so hard.
“Guys I gotta go and get the results from the office, see you tomorrow”
“Oh God Jae, how much I missed you! Bye” said Yoochun still clutching his stomach and laughing as hard as a monkey.
And as expected, I got in the University with full scholarship having almost perfected the entrance exam. I went home after shopping for food and cooked for our supper. Since we were in Japan I’ve been the one who does housework for the two of us, I learned cooking and doing other feminine jobs like sewing and baking.
My dad came home late that night because he was still fixing his papers for the transfer he made from Japan to Korea. I told him about my acceptance to the University and the scholarship they gave me.
“Jae, I’m so proud of you. You should really thank my genes for your intelligence!”
I just rolled my eyes as response and served him the food.
“Oh by the way dad, I just met Junsu and Yoochun earlier today and they were also studying at the same university.”
“That’s good to hear, you won’t be a loner when you go to school tomorrow.”
“Since when have I become a loner dad? People flock around me you know!” I said jokingly.
“Yeah they do, but they are not the ones who you call real friends, they just like you because of superficial things. Like how you look. So Jae, be careful on the people you meet. You are now at the age where most people fall in love. I want you to feel love that is true and for you not to get hurt.”
“I know, I know. Don’t worry I can take care of myself. Besides there’s Yoochun and Junsu to protect me. you know how protective they could get.”
“Haha, yeah, I pity the kid that hit on you back then. Haha, Yoochun and Junsu interviewed him like a father interviews a man who would want to marry his daughter!”
“You know about that? Then you must know about my…?”
“Yes Jae, I know you’re gay, you can’t hide anything from your old man.”
“Then you must have told me since the day you found out! You were so cool about it and here I was worrying on how to tell you someday!” I punched his arm to show him how worried I truly was because of that issue.