COINCIDENCE - Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Adelle muttered something softly, slumping against the door, sobbing uncontrollably. Aveline, who had been waiting for Adelle to come back, went up to her cousin and embraced her tightly without really knowing what had happened. Adelle could only accept the embrace gratefully unable to form words in her current state.
Soon enough, Aveline fell asleep crouching next to Adelle, her head drooping and swaying from side to side. Despite herself, Adelle chuckled and helped Aveline to her bed, admiring her cousin’s ability to sleep anywhere and grateful for it too since she needed some time alone with her thoughts. Her mind drifted to her kiss with Junsu earlier.
“So am I the first person to hear that?” Adelle prodded, forcing Junsu to look at her once again. He nodded shyly and they both smiled at each other. Unable to hold his gaze very long, Adelle looked away, trying to refrain herself from blushing too much.
When she looked back at Junsu, she was surprised to find his nose merely a few centimeters away from hers. The close proximity, as well as the shock, caused her to jump slightly, startling Junsu. The arms supporting his leaning body gave way and disturbed his balance. The next thing they knew, they were both sprawled across the couch with their lips touching. Surprised and eyes wide, both immediately moved quickly away from each other. An uncomfortable silence filled the room.
“I… I have to go sleep.” Adelle stood up suddenly. Without looking at the older boy, she walked away, tears brimming in her eyes.
“Even after all this time, I can’t forget it. What is wrong with you, Adelle? Junsu is not like him!” She scolded herself, hitting her head against the wall. She lied back against her bed, contemplating what she could do to rectify the situation with Junsu. Unable to find a satisfying solution, she resorted to switching the lights off and staring up at what she thought was a regular ceiling.
She gasped at what she saw. The ceiling of the room was adorned with glow-in the dark stars and Adelle felt her body relax. Watching the sky always had that effect on her. She thought back to the time she first saw Junsu at the airport a little over a month ago and she realized that she had not been the same since. The lax attitude, the more frequent smiles, the jokes she found herself saying, the laughter she genuinely expressed were few of the things she now realized she had not been known to do. It felt alien to her but it also made her feel good. And it was all because of the guys, because of Junsu. With these thoughts lulling her, she finally drifted off to sleep.
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“Stop it! I told you I don’t want to do it!” I tried to move away from the strong grasp but failed miserably. Cold fear overtook my senses as my voice lost its strength. I panicked, struggling against his vice grip to no avail. He was too strong.
“You and I have been together for awhile. Everyone’s doing it, it’s normal.” He pressed on, ignoring my pleas. I felt my strength finally failed me as he locked my arms over my head. I hid my face against my forearms in my last desperate attempt to hide. My arms were wet and I felt the bed rumble. “Stop crying!” I heard the loud smack against my face but felt no pain. So I was crying. Now that I knew, it was easier to control. I could barely feel it.
I could not feel his arousal against my bare thigh. I did not smell the rancid odor of alcohol all over his body. I barely sensed his lips over my battered body. I began to feel calm. I could handle this. As long as I stopped feeling, everything would be okay. I closed my eyes and pretended I was elsewhere.
“You bitch, look at me when I’m talking to you!” My cheeks were tingling. I felt the rapid beating of his heart. Or was it mine? Beating louder and louder in conjunction to his yells. I saw his fist descended upon me and heard a loud crack. I felt it this time. The very moment I felt the pain in my jaw, I became aware of every part of my body. Every sting, every cut, and every bruise. The tears began once again. Through my fogged vision, I saw his contorted smile. “That’s right. You want to feel this when it happened. You’re going to love it, you slut!” He was yelling in my ears. I did not move. I could not move.
And then, the deepest and most profound agony ripped through my lower body. I was no longer catatonic. Desperately trying to break free, I tried to scream but heard nothing more than the loud wailing of my pain. Each time he pushed himself into me, the pain is stronger, my senses sharper, his beatings harder.
Finally, it stopped. He pulled himself out and I felt moisture all over my abdomen. I tried to hold my breath. His scent sickened me. I heard him chuckle.
“Did you like that, whore?” He pressed his free hand roughly against my breast before his teeth ground themselves upon me. I heard another sharp, pitiful cry of pain. Was it mine? Was it even human’s? Could anyone be capable of uttering such a heart-wrenching sound? I felt pity took over me. I felt sorry for this girl. So defenseless, weak, and tainted. What could I do to save her? Anger burned in my body.
“You worthless piece of trash.” Did that work? Had I defended her? I saw a look of surprise on his face but it was soon replaced with a horrific grin.
“OH! She speaks. Haven’t had enough then?” I felt the same panic overtook my mind once again. I had failed. “Don’t worry. I can go on all night.” I couldn’t breathe. “Why the sour face, love? You’re going to enjoy it even more this time around.”
Without much warning, I felt the same throbbing pain in my lower body and wished that I could die. But instead, I screamed…
Adelle woke up in cold sweat, sobbing silently to herself. She curled her body into a ball and pushed her back against the solid cool wall. It had been months since she last had that dream. After awhile, she realized that she was trembling. Taking deep breaths and now afraid to fall back to sleep, she tiptoed out of the room for a glass of water.
The light in the living room was on. She peeked to see Junsu’s profile as he sat on the dining table, holding a glass of water in his hands and eyebrows scrunched in deep thought. She turned back to her room to give him more privacy when Junsu spotted her.
“Oh, Adelle-sshi.” Adelle cringed at the formality. Junsu immediately stood, pulling up the chair across from him for her to sit instead of the one next to him. Adelle felt a twinge of regret and loss but at the same time, she was glad that Junsu was not completely ignoring her and figured that it was probably for the best. She still had not been able to completely shake off her nightmare.
She nodded and took up the seat while Junsu poured a glass of water for her. She took a few gulps gratefully, feeling the cool liquid over her throat. She smiled awkwardly at him.
“Are you okay? You look terrible.” Adelle nodded her head politely, wringing her hands in apprehension.
“I had a nightmare.” She saw the look of concern on Junsu’s face. The fear in her subsided slightly. “I’m okay though,” she added quickly. Junsu pursed his lips in doubt but bobbed his head slightly.
Unable to think of anything else to say, both simply kept quiet while sipping their beverage, looking everywhere but at each other.
“Umm…”
“Umm...” They both laughed nervously. “You start first, Adelle-sshi.”
“About what happened earlier…”
“Ah yes, I’m sorry. I didn’t know what came over me. I didn’t mean to startle or scare you. It won’t happen again. I promise.” He held his hands up as a gesture of promise. She smiled bitterly. Junsu swigged down the rest of his water.
“I’m going to go to bed now. You should rest soon too, Adelle-sshi. Don’t stay up too late. Otherwise you won’t be able to keep up with Aveline and the rest of us tomorrow at the amusement park,” he winked and smiled. It was guarded, she could tell. She whispered an almost inaudible concurrence before he grunted and turned away.
Adelle looked at the silhouette of his back, whispering, “You didn’t let me finish… about what happened earlier, it wasn’t your fault. Give me some time to heal, Junsu; please don’t give up on me.” She stood up, turned off the light and strolled quietly back into her room.
Adelle woke up to the sound Aveline’s whines and violent shaking. “Adelle!!! Wake up! We want to go early in order to beat traffic and not have to wait in line for tickets. Hurry and get up. I’m all ready.” Scrunching her face in annoyance, Adelle grabbed a nearby pillow, whacked the daylights out of her cousin and shifted her sleeping position in an attempt to ignore the overly excited girl.
Undeterred by her cousin’s vehement response, Aveline continued to jump on the bed causing a shrill scream to erupt from the older female’s mouth. In shock, Aveline was thrown off of the bed, mouth agape and her two dark brown orbs focused on Adelle in astonishment. In all her life, she had never seen Adelle raise her voice let alone scream. The health of her pair of lungs definitely need not be questioned.
“I GOT IT! I GOT IT! I’LL GET UP!” Not forgetting to throw her two pillows while “accidentally” tripping over Aveline’s form on the way, Adelle trudged across the room to shower, muttering evil curses under her breath.
Despite the bad luck she had been sworn to receive thanks to her older cousin, Aveline was soon back to her cheerful self, thinking dreamily of the things she would be able to do at the amusement park. After she made sure that Adelle was indeed getting ready in the shower, she made her way into the living room and kitchen to see if the boys were up.
She was not disappointed when she saw all five boys in the kitchen chatting animatedly with each other in Korean. The three youngest were trying to mooch off the breakfast that Jaejoong had made for the seven of them. Aveline saw the two oldest fighting gallantly to try to fight off the food fiends. She laughed at the sight, bringing the attention away from the food and toward her. Sneakily, Changmin still yet managed to steal a piece of sausage from the plate. Aveline saw but decided that a sausage link was not worth a civil war.
“Good morning Aveline! Did you sleep well? Dreamt of anything?” Yunho greeted, followed by sniggers shared around the boys with the exception of Jaejoong.
“Umm…No, not that I can recall. Maybe about a rabid bunny, but I can’t remember anything else. Why?” Aveline scratched her chin thoughtfully. Their sniggers turn into stifled chuckles as Jaejoong’s face reddened.
“We didn’t. But Jaejoong hyung sure did.” Changmin replied with howls of laughter from the others. Jaejoong, whose face was now identical in color as a ripened tomato, whacked the others with the wooden spatula he was still holding.
He did dream. He was dreaming that he and Aveline were walking alongside the beach during sunset while eating ice cream. He himself was not quite sure how it happened but all of the sudden, the ice creams in question were not being consumed but rather were used as weapons of mass chaos and destruction by a family of giant ants. Apparently, in his sleep, he had called out Aveline’s name in a questionable tone, shivering in a response to the cold ice cream.
He had tried to explain to the band mates when they questioned him. They were not having the ice cream deal, convinced something more lewd was in the oldest boy’s mind. Jaejoong sighed. Perverts, all of them.
“Oh? What did you dream about, Jaejoong? Was it interesting?” Aveline asked innocently. The boys roared once again.
“Interesting indeed huh, hyung?” Yoochun elbowed the fair-skinned boy. That received him another whack in the head with the spatula, this time using the edge of the handle. Yoochun whined and cuddled against Aveline, both to make a point to Jaejoong as well as to make him jealous.
“Aww, you poor thing. Oppa, that wasn’t nice of you.” Aveline stroked the ‘injured’ boy’s head while scolding Jaejoong.
“Oppa? Since when do you call him oppa?” Changmin frowned. Jaejoong blushed, unable to answer. Fortunately, Aveline was quick on her feet and answered,
“Since he’s older than me. I obviously can’t call you oppa, now can I? You’re younger than me. If anything, you should be calling me noona instead.” This seemed to pacify him.
“Oh right, Aveline. Where’s Adelle?” Junsu flinched a little at the name when Jaejoong asked. “Breakfast is all ready.” At the sound of breakfast, Changmin and Aveline forgot their differences and sat side by side on the dining table like the best of friends.
“I woke her up already. She’s getting ready. She told me to tell you to go ahead and eat first.” Aveline’s eyes were wide with anticipation, saliva threatening to soil the table cloth.
“Now that doesn’t sound like her. Let me go check.” Yunho headed to the room. Suddenly, he whipped his head with the meanest glare he could muster “And don’t anyone dare take a bite until I get back with her. Understand?”
“Yes, sir,” they chorused in disappointment. Luckily, they didn’t have to wait long. Adelle came out of the room even before Yunho could take another step, all dressed and ready, albeit the reluctant expression.
“Adelle, are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost.” Yoochun remarked from his seat. Adelle looked at him lazily before turning her attention to Aveline.
“I did. Her name is Aveline, the most annoying ghost of all.”
“Oh, you know you love me. You’re just getting the morning grumpiness. Get over it and come eat. Yunho won’t let us eat without you and we’re starving.” The others nodded. Aveline pulled her older cousin to sit next to her. And coincidentally, or not, judging by the smirks plastered on their faces, she sat next to Junsu, dreading the morning.
“Morning, Adelle-sshi. You ready for the amusement park?” came Junsu’s voice from beside her. She whipped her head sideways in surprise, stuttering a reply. Junsu nodded briefly with pursed lips and returned to his breakfast now that cordial greetings have been exchanged.
The whole day at the amusement park was spent with Junsu trying his best to keep his distance from Adelle. He thought this would make her more comfortable. She thought he hated her. While everyone was busy having fun riding in the roller coaster and enjoying their time riding in the carousel, Adelle was trying hard to sit next to Junsu while the latter expertly dodged her without being obvious to the others.
She had it. She was losing her mind. She would prefer his yells. She could bear his glares and spiteful words. But she could not stand if he tried to solve problems with indifference and silence. She screamed out his name in frustration.
“JUNSU-YAH!!! BABO!!!” Everyone within the immediate perimeter stopped to look at her. She ignored them and grabbed Junsu’s hand, leading him away to a more private place. However, once they were away from the crowd, Adelle was suddenly speechless and Junsu was still avoiding her eyes. Finally,
“Junsu-yah… why won’t you look at me anymore?” She looked up at his face. Before he tried to answer, she continued, “And why won’t you talk to me? Why are you avoiding me?” He stared at her peculiarly before replying,
“I thought this was what you wanted, Adelle-sshi.”
“See? There you go again with the formalities…” she trailed, unable to finish her thoughts now that her anger had melted. He, too, kept quiet. “Can’t we… can’t we go back to the way it was? I mean… I know it’s hypocritical of me to say all this but ever since you put that huge distance between us, I realized that I would rather have the old you back, smiles and all.” She looked away.
The five minutes that ensued afterwards seemed like a blur to her. Junsu gingerly placed his hands to caress Adelle’s cheeks. She turned to look at him. With tender and loving eyes looking back at her, she blushed but was unable to look away. He leaned in but stopped, recollecting the memory of the night before. Noticing the hesitation, Adelle reduced the distance between them by placing a soft peck on his lips. His eyes widened and she smiled sheepishly.
“I’m sorry about last night. One day… one day I will tell you why. But for now, this is all I can give you. Is that okay?” Junsu grinned, still at a loss after the peck. Adelle chuckled heartily, her burden forgotten. She pulled him closer, her face mere inches before him. This time, he closed the distance and leaned down for the kiss. Wide smiles adorned their faces.
“So Adelle-sshi… does this mean that we’re together?” He winked mischievously. She slapped his arm playfully and pulled him back toward the crowds. Five anxious people greeted them in relief once they saw the elated expressions. The guys patted Junsu in the back. Yoochun, claiming that his hands were occupied, used his new toy hammer to whack the younger boy’s head. Aveline, who felt cheated off of her time from being able to ride “just one more time at the spleen cruncher,” insisted that Adelle tell her all about it after their last carousel ride together.
As she was being pulled by Aveline, Adelle smiled to herself. The day had turned out better than she expected.
Adelle muttered something softly, slumping against the door, sobbing uncontrollably. Aveline, who had been waiting for Adelle to come back, went up to her cousin and embraced her tightly without really knowing what had happened. Adelle could only accept the embrace gratefully unable to form words in her current state.
Soon enough, Aveline fell asleep crouching next to Adelle, her head drooping and swaying from side to side. Despite herself, Adelle chuckled and helped Aveline to her bed, admiring her cousin’s ability to sleep anywhere and grateful for it too since she needed some time alone with her thoughts. Her mind drifted to her kiss with Junsu earlier.
“So am I the first person to hear that?” Adelle prodded, forcing Junsu to look at her once again. He nodded shyly and they both smiled at each other. Unable to hold his gaze very long, Adelle looked away, trying to refrain herself from blushing too much.
When she looked back at Junsu, she was surprised to find his nose merely a few centimeters away from hers. The close proximity, as well as the shock, caused her to jump slightly, startling Junsu. The arms supporting his leaning body gave way and disturbed his balance. The next thing they knew, they were both sprawled across the couch with their lips touching. Surprised and eyes wide, both immediately moved quickly away from each other. An uncomfortable silence filled the room.
“I… I have to go sleep.” Adelle stood up suddenly. Without looking at the older boy, she walked away, tears brimming in her eyes.
“Even after all this time, I can’t forget it. What is wrong with you, Adelle? Junsu is not like him!” She scolded herself, hitting her head against the wall. She lied back against her bed, contemplating what she could do to rectify the situation with Junsu. Unable to find a satisfying solution, she resorted to switching the lights off and staring up at what she thought was a regular ceiling.
She gasped at what she saw. The ceiling of the room was adorned with glow-in the dark stars and Adelle felt her body relax. Watching the sky always had that effect on her. She thought back to the time she first saw Junsu at the airport a little over a month ago and she realized that she had not been the same since. The lax attitude, the more frequent smiles, the jokes she found herself saying, the laughter she genuinely expressed were few of the things she now realized she had not been known to do. It felt alien to her but it also made her feel good. And it was all because of the guys, because of Junsu. With these thoughts lulling her, she finally drifted off to sleep.
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“Stop it! I told you I don’t want to do it!” I tried to move away from the strong grasp but failed miserably. Cold fear overtook my senses as my voice lost its strength. I panicked, struggling against his vice grip to no avail. He was too strong.
“You and I have been together for awhile. Everyone’s doing it, it’s normal.” He pressed on, ignoring my pleas. I felt my strength finally failed me as he locked my arms over my head. I hid my face against my forearms in my last desperate attempt to hide. My arms were wet and I felt the bed rumble. “Stop crying!” I heard the loud smack against my face but felt no pain. So I was crying. Now that I knew, it was easier to control. I could barely feel it.
I could not feel his arousal against my bare thigh. I did not smell the rancid odor of alcohol all over his body. I barely sensed his lips over my battered body. I began to feel calm. I could handle this. As long as I stopped feeling, everything would be okay. I closed my eyes and pretended I was elsewhere.
“You bitch, look at me when I’m talking to you!” My cheeks were tingling. I felt the rapid beating of his heart. Or was it mine? Beating louder and louder in conjunction to his yells. I saw his fist descended upon me and heard a loud crack. I felt it this time. The very moment I felt the pain in my jaw, I became aware of every part of my body. Every sting, every cut, and every bruise. The tears began once again. Through my fogged vision, I saw his contorted smile. “That’s right. You want to feel this when it happened. You’re going to love it, you slut!” He was yelling in my ears. I did not move. I could not move.
And then, the deepest and most profound agony ripped through my lower body. I was no longer catatonic. Desperately trying to break free, I tried to scream but heard nothing more than the loud wailing of my pain. Each time he pushed himself into me, the pain is stronger, my senses sharper, his beatings harder.
Finally, it stopped. He pulled himself out and I felt moisture all over my abdomen. I tried to hold my breath. His scent sickened me. I heard him chuckle.
“Did you like that, whore?” He pressed his free hand roughly against my breast before his teeth ground themselves upon me. I heard another sharp, pitiful cry of pain. Was it mine? Was it even human’s? Could anyone be capable of uttering such a heart-wrenching sound? I felt pity took over me. I felt sorry for this girl. So defenseless, weak, and tainted. What could I do to save her? Anger burned in my body.
“You worthless piece of trash.” Did that work? Had I defended her? I saw a look of surprise on his face but it was soon replaced with a horrific grin.
“OH! She speaks. Haven’t had enough then?” I felt the same panic overtook my mind once again. I had failed. “Don’t worry. I can go on all night.” I couldn’t breathe. “Why the sour face, love? You’re going to enjoy it even more this time around.”
Without much warning, I felt the same throbbing pain in my lower body and wished that I could die. But instead, I screamed…
Adelle woke up in cold sweat, sobbing silently to herself. She curled her body into a ball and pushed her back against the solid cool wall. It had been months since she last had that dream. After awhile, she realized that she was trembling. Taking deep breaths and now afraid to fall back to sleep, she tiptoed out of the room for a glass of water.
The light in the living room was on. She peeked to see Junsu’s profile as he sat on the dining table, holding a glass of water in his hands and eyebrows scrunched in deep thought. She turned back to her room to give him more privacy when Junsu spotted her.
“Oh, Adelle-sshi.” Adelle cringed at the formality. Junsu immediately stood, pulling up the chair across from him for her to sit instead of the one next to him. Adelle felt a twinge of regret and loss but at the same time, she was glad that Junsu was not completely ignoring her and figured that it was probably for the best. She still had not been able to completely shake off her nightmare.
She nodded and took up the seat while Junsu poured a glass of water for her. She took a few gulps gratefully, feeling the cool liquid over her throat. She smiled awkwardly at him.
“Are you okay? You look terrible.” Adelle nodded her head politely, wringing her hands in apprehension.
“I had a nightmare.” She saw the look of concern on Junsu’s face. The fear in her subsided slightly. “I’m okay though,” she added quickly. Junsu pursed his lips in doubt but bobbed his head slightly.
Unable to think of anything else to say, both simply kept quiet while sipping their beverage, looking everywhere but at each other.
“Umm…”
“Umm...” They both laughed nervously. “You start first, Adelle-sshi.”
“About what happened earlier…”
“Ah yes, I’m sorry. I didn’t know what came over me. I didn’t mean to startle or scare you. It won’t happen again. I promise.” He held his hands up as a gesture of promise. She smiled bitterly. Junsu swigged down the rest of his water.
“I’m going to go to bed now. You should rest soon too, Adelle-sshi. Don’t stay up too late. Otherwise you won’t be able to keep up with Aveline and the rest of us tomorrow at the amusement park,” he winked and smiled. It was guarded, she could tell. She whispered an almost inaudible concurrence before he grunted and turned away.
Adelle looked at the silhouette of his back, whispering, “You didn’t let me finish… about what happened earlier, it wasn’t your fault. Give me some time to heal, Junsu; please don’t give up on me.” She stood up, turned off the light and strolled quietly back into her room.
Adelle woke up to the sound Aveline’s whines and violent shaking. “Adelle!!! Wake up! We want to go early in order to beat traffic and not have to wait in line for tickets. Hurry and get up. I’m all ready.” Scrunching her face in annoyance, Adelle grabbed a nearby pillow, whacked the daylights out of her cousin and shifted her sleeping position in an attempt to ignore the overly excited girl.
Undeterred by her cousin’s vehement response, Aveline continued to jump on the bed causing a shrill scream to erupt from the older female’s mouth. In shock, Aveline was thrown off of the bed, mouth agape and her two dark brown orbs focused on Adelle in astonishment. In all her life, she had never seen Adelle raise her voice let alone scream. The health of her pair of lungs definitely need not be questioned.
“I GOT IT! I GOT IT! I’LL GET UP!” Not forgetting to throw her two pillows while “accidentally” tripping over Aveline’s form on the way, Adelle trudged across the room to shower, muttering evil curses under her breath.
Despite the bad luck she had been sworn to receive thanks to her older cousin, Aveline was soon back to her cheerful self, thinking dreamily of the things she would be able to do at the amusement park. After she made sure that Adelle was indeed getting ready in the shower, she made her way into the living room and kitchen to see if the boys were up.
She was not disappointed when she saw all five boys in the kitchen chatting animatedly with each other in Korean. The three youngest were trying to mooch off the breakfast that Jaejoong had made for the seven of them. Aveline saw the two oldest fighting gallantly to try to fight off the food fiends. She laughed at the sight, bringing the attention away from the food and toward her. Sneakily, Changmin still yet managed to steal a piece of sausage from the plate. Aveline saw but decided that a sausage link was not worth a civil war.
“Good morning Aveline! Did you sleep well? Dreamt of anything?” Yunho greeted, followed by sniggers shared around the boys with the exception of Jaejoong.
“Umm…No, not that I can recall. Maybe about a rabid bunny, but I can’t remember anything else. Why?” Aveline scratched her chin thoughtfully. Their sniggers turn into stifled chuckles as Jaejoong’s face reddened.
“We didn’t. But Jaejoong hyung sure did.” Changmin replied with howls of laughter from the others. Jaejoong, whose face was now identical in color as a ripened tomato, whacked the others with the wooden spatula he was still holding.
He did dream. He was dreaming that he and Aveline were walking alongside the beach during sunset while eating ice cream. He himself was not quite sure how it happened but all of the sudden, the ice creams in question were not being consumed but rather were used as weapons of mass chaos and destruction by a family of giant ants. Apparently, in his sleep, he had called out Aveline’s name in a questionable tone, shivering in a response to the cold ice cream.
He had tried to explain to the band mates when they questioned him. They were not having the ice cream deal, convinced something more lewd was in the oldest boy’s mind. Jaejoong sighed. Perverts, all of them.
“Oh? What did you dream about, Jaejoong? Was it interesting?” Aveline asked innocently. The boys roared once again.
“Interesting indeed huh, hyung?” Yoochun elbowed the fair-skinned boy. That received him another whack in the head with the spatula, this time using the edge of the handle. Yoochun whined and cuddled against Aveline, both to make a point to Jaejoong as well as to make him jealous.
“Aww, you poor thing. Oppa, that wasn’t nice of you.” Aveline stroked the ‘injured’ boy’s head while scolding Jaejoong.
“Oppa? Since when do you call him oppa?” Changmin frowned. Jaejoong blushed, unable to answer. Fortunately, Aveline was quick on her feet and answered,
“Since he’s older than me. I obviously can’t call you oppa, now can I? You’re younger than me. If anything, you should be calling me noona instead.” This seemed to pacify him.
“Oh right, Aveline. Where’s Adelle?” Junsu flinched a little at the name when Jaejoong asked. “Breakfast is all ready.” At the sound of breakfast, Changmin and Aveline forgot their differences and sat side by side on the dining table like the best of friends.
“I woke her up already. She’s getting ready. She told me to tell you to go ahead and eat first.” Aveline’s eyes were wide with anticipation, saliva threatening to soil the table cloth.
“Now that doesn’t sound like her. Let me go check.” Yunho headed to the room. Suddenly, he whipped his head with the meanest glare he could muster “And don’t anyone dare take a bite until I get back with her. Understand?”
“Yes, sir,” they chorused in disappointment. Luckily, they didn’t have to wait long. Adelle came out of the room even before Yunho could take another step, all dressed and ready, albeit the reluctant expression.
“Adelle, are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost.” Yoochun remarked from his seat. Adelle looked at him lazily before turning her attention to Aveline.
“I did. Her name is Aveline, the most annoying ghost of all.”
“Oh, you know you love me. You’re just getting the morning grumpiness. Get over it and come eat. Yunho won’t let us eat without you and we’re starving.” The others nodded. Aveline pulled her older cousin to sit next to her. And coincidentally, or not, judging by the smirks plastered on their faces, she sat next to Junsu, dreading the morning.
“Morning, Adelle-sshi. You ready for the amusement park?” came Junsu’s voice from beside her. She whipped her head sideways in surprise, stuttering a reply. Junsu nodded briefly with pursed lips and returned to his breakfast now that cordial greetings have been exchanged.
The whole day at the amusement park was spent with Junsu trying his best to keep his distance from Adelle. He thought this would make her more comfortable. She thought he hated her. While everyone was busy having fun riding in the roller coaster and enjoying their time riding in the carousel, Adelle was trying hard to sit next to Junsu while the latter expertly dodged her without being obvious to the others.
She had it. She was losing her mind. She would prefer his yells. She could bear his glares and spiteful words. But she could not stand if he tried to solve problems with indifference and silence. She screamed out his name in frustration.
“JUNSU-YAH!!! BABO!!!” Everyone within the immediate perimeter stopped to look at her. She ignored them and grabbed Junsu’s hand, leading him away to a more private place. However, once they were away from the crowd, Adelle was suddenly speechless and Junsu was still avoiding her eyes. Finally,
“Junsu-yah… why won’t you look at me anymore?” She looked up at his face. Before he tried to answer, she continued, “And why won’t you talk to me? Why are you avoiding me?” He stared at her peculiarly before replying,
“I thought this was what you wanted, Adelle-sshi.”
“See? There you go again with the formalities…” she trailed, unable to finish her thoughts now that her anger had melted. He, too, kept quiet. “Can’t we… can’t we go back to the way it was? I mean… I know it’s hypocritical of me to say all this but ever since you put that huge distance between us, I realized that I would rather have the old you back, smiles and all.” She looked away.
The five minutes that ensued afterwards seemed like a blur to her. Junsu gingerly placed his hands to caress Adelle’s cheeks. She turned to look at him. With tender and loving eyes looking back at her, she blushed but was unable to look away. He leaned in but stopped, recollecting the memory of the night before. Noticing the hesitation, Adelle reduced the distance between them by placing a soft peck on his lips. His eyes widened and she smiled sheepishly.
“I’m sorry about last night. One day… one day I will tell you why. But for now, this is all I can give you. Is that okay?” Junsu grinned, still at a loss after the peck. Adelle chuckled heartily, her burden forgotten. She pulled him closer, her face mere inches before him. This time, he closed the distance and leaned down for the kiss. Wide smiles adorned their faces.
“So Adelle-sshi… does this mean that we’re together?” He winked mischievously. She slapped his arm playfully and pulled him back toward the crowds. Five anxious people greeted them in relief once they saw the elated expressions. The guys patted Junsu in the back. Yoochun, claiming that his hands were occupied, used his new toy hammer to whack the younger boy’s head. Aveline, who felt cheated off of her time from being able to ride “just one more time at the spleen cruncher,” insisted that Adelle tell her all about it after their last carousel ride together.
As she was being pulled by Aveline, Adelle smiled to herself. The day had turned out better than she expected.